That jealous heart-cry strikes the keynote of our story, dear reader, for had the senator not loved Precious best, this story of Ethel's temptation and her sister's suffering would never have been written.
Ethel Winans was bitterly unhappy.
Unhappy? and why?
Externally she had everything to make her blessed.
Young, beautiful, healthy, the fortunate daughter of a rich and distinguished statesman, this girl had
"But lain in the lilies
And fed on the roses of life."
But Milton has aptly written:
"The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven."
Ethel Winans' life stream had been poisoned at its very source by a baleful jealousy.