Alpha Book

This was the evening during which Roger Stapylton had favorably received
his declaration; and Colonel Musgrave was remembering the time that he
and Anne had last spoken with a semblance of intimacy--that caustic
time when Anne Charteris had interrupted him in high words with her
husband, and circumstances had afforded to Rudolph Musgrave no choice
save to confess, to this too-perfect woman, of all created beings, his
"true relations" with Clarice Pendomer.
Even as yet the bitterness of that humiliation was not savorless....
It seemed to him that he could never bear to think of the night when
Anne had heard his stammerings through, and had merely listened, and in
listening had been unreasonably beautiful. So Godiva might have looked
on Peeping Tom, with more of wonder than of loathing, just at first....
It had been very hard to bear. But it seemed necessary. The truth would
have hurt Anne too much....
He noted with the gusto of a connoisseur how neatly the denouement of
this piteous farce had been prepared.


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