For Lena Rook it was an opportune arrival; and, for a time at least, she was spared that threatened “chapter o’ kattykism.”
Story 1--Chapter XVIII.
An Angry Admirer.
For the first time in her life, Lena Rook saw Alfred Brandon approach her father’s house without a feeling of pain or repulsion.
Though for years he had been the most solicitous of her suitors, she felt for him something more than contempt.
Despite his position in society—far superior to her own—despite his fine clothes and speeches, she saw through the character of the man, and believed him to be both a pretender and poltroon.
She knew that he was cruel—a tyrant to all who had the misfortune to be under him, and a hard task-master to the black-skinned slaves that lived upon his father’s plantation.
Though dissipated, he was not generous; and, with all the plenty he possessed, he was accounted among his associates the closest of screws. He spent money, and enough of it, but only upon himself, and in the indulgence of his own sensual desires.