How they loved him, Vol. 2 (of 3)
by Florence Marryat (1833–1899)
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- 3 hours to read
- 8 chapters
"How they loved him, Vol. 2 (of 3) by Florence Marryat is a novel written in the late 19th century. It is a romantic and social drama about a young woman’s first love colliding with duty, vanity, and public reputation. The story centers on Fenella Barrington’s devoted love for the charming but weak Geoffrey Doyne, the calculating pressure of Jessie Robertson’s family, and the self-serving ambitions of Fenella’s mother.
The opening of the book follows Fenella at Ines-cedwyn, where she idolizes Geoffrey and meets him secretly on the sands until he is called to London. There, pushed by his lawyer brother and Jessie’s formidable mother, Geoffrey fails to stand firm, begs Jessie to release him, and—after she refuses—marries her. Meanwhile, Fenella returns to London with her maid and then her mother, who immediately schemes to capitalize on her daughter’s new beauty, while Fenella anxiously awaits word from Geoffrey. She learns the truth not from him but from a newspaper marriage notice, collapses, and a doctor hints that her sudden illness springs from a deep mental shock.
- English fiction · 19th century
Read the opening
Chapter I
‘It is the same together or apart,
From life’s commencement to its slow decline:
We are entwined; let death come slow or fast,
The tie which bound the first endures the last.’
Byron.
To describe the feelings of Fenella Barrington at this period would be almost impossible. Not because no one has ever felt so deeply as she did, but because such thoughts are not to be adequately portrayed in black and white. Arraigned before the judgment of the world, they would appear foolish, romantic, overstrained, and perhaps culpable; to each individual heart alone, according to the circumstances under which they found it, must they answer for the consequences. Fenella’s heart was in an exceptional condition when the passion of love overtook and conquered it. In the first place, she was very young; and youth, like charity, ‘believeth all things and hopeth all things.’ She was too ignorant of human nature to doubt its truth—too ignorant of life to distrust its possibilities. And in the second place, she was very lonely and unhappy. She had no watchful parent to shield her innocence; she had not even any one to call her to account for her actions. She was free as the air, unguarded as the birds that flew in it, unloved as the most friendless waif that was ever forsaken by its natural protectors.
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About this edition
This free edition of How they loved him, Vol. 2 (of 3) by Florence Marryat comes from Project Gutenberg eBook #78111, released 2026-03-04. It is in the public domain in the United States, so you can read it here in full at no cost, on any phone, tablet or computer.
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