Page:The Great Harry Thaw Case.djvu/252



"She says, after narrating what took place in Paris in June, 1903: 'The effect of this story on Mr. Thaw was terrible. To think of me—I was so young—and to think of this big, great yellow brute. It must have been frightful. He could not think of it. He would walk up and down the room exclaiming, "Oh, God; oh, God," and kept sobbing, not like an ordinary sob, but a terrible sob. He kept saying, "Go on, tell me the whole story." He said it was not my fault—that I was simply a poor unfortunate little girl; that he didn't think any the less of me on account of it, and he said that no matter what happened he would always be my friend. He renewed his proposal of marriage two months after. He said that I was not to blame—that it was not my fault.

"'I told him that if I did marry him the friends of Stanford White would always laugh at him—that they knew about it and would be able to sneer at him after our marriage; that it would not be right for us to get married; that it would not be a good thing because of his family; it would get him into trouble in his social relations. He kept saying that he could never care for or love anybody else. He said he never could marry another woman and that he wanted to make me his honorable wife. He said I was an unfortunate person and he thought just as much of me.

"'He kept pressing me to become his wife, but I said I could go on the stage. I said that if he ever met some one he wanted to marry he would be perfectly free to do so.

"'I loved him so dearly, but during the whole period I was refusing his offers of marriage because I loved him. And I also respected him.'

"'Sublime renunciation,' says the sneering district attorney. 'Sublime refusal on her part to accept the hand of a wealthy man when he offered her an honorable union.'