A Book o' Nine Tales.

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Bates Arlo. A Book o' Nine Tales.

Tale the First. A STRANGE IDYL

Interlude First. AN EPISODE IN MASK

Tale the Second. THE TUBEROSE

Interlude Second. AN EVENING AT WHIST

Tale the Third. SAUCY BETTY MORK

Interlude Third. MRS. FRUFFLES IS AT HOME

Tale the Fourth. JOHN VANTINE

Interlude Fourth. THE RADIATOR

Tale the Fifth. MÈRE MARCHETTE

Interlude Fifth “SUCH SWEET SORROW.”

Tale the Sixth. BARUM WEST’S EXTRAVAGANZA

Interlude Sixth. A BUSINESS MEETING

Tale the Seventh. A SKETCH IN UMBER

Interlude Seventh. THIRTEEN

Tale the Eighth. APRIL’S LADY

Interlude Eighth. A CUBAN MORNING

Tale the Ninth. DELIA GRIMWET

Отрывок из книги

[Scene: – A balcony opening by a wide, curtained window from a ball-room in which a masquerade is in progress. Two maskers, the lady dressed as a peasant girl of Britany and her companion as a brigand, come out. The curtains fall behind them so that they are hidden from those within.]

He. You waltz divinely, mademoiselle.

.....

She. And why?

He. Why? Why? Who ever knows a woman’s reason! Because I refused, perhaps, to call black white, to say I was pleased by what made me angry; because – No; on the whole, since I am not making love to her, it is hardly worth while to lie to a peasant from Britany, though it is of course necessary to sustain the social fictions with people nearer home. It was because the wedding-ring was a fetter that constrained my wife, body and soul; because I was as inflexible as steel. My purposes, my views, my beliefs were the Procrustean bed upon which every act of hers was measured. Voila tout!

.....