dBooks desire

It was the man who set the example of breaking
through the barriers of conventional restraint--
perhaps of delicacy, though it must be said that human
beings are rarely so fine in their reticences as the theory
of refinement would have us believe. Said Stanley,
after the preliminaries of partial confidence and halting
avowal that could not be omitted, even at sea, by a man
of ``gentlemanly instinct'':
``I don't know why I shouldn't own up. I know
you'll never tell anybody. Fact is, I and my wife were
never in love with each other for a second. We married
because we were in the same set and because our incomes
together gave us enough to do the thing rather well.''
After a solemn pause. ``I was in love with another
woman--one I couldn't marry. But I'll not go into
that. As for my wife, I don't think she was in love
with anyone. She's as cold as a stone.''
Mildred smiled ironically.
Baird saw and flushed. ``At least, she was to me.
I was ready to make a sort of bluff. You see, a man
feels guilty in those circumstances and doesn't want
to humiliate a woman.


Pages:
160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184