The Sealed Letter
“Harry sucks the harsh tobacco deep into his lungs. "How the years fall away.""Hm?""When we were boys. You taught me how to fill a pipe when I was just eleven, I believe. Mama was incensed."His brother grins. "Cigarettes are so much easier.""Oh Will," says Harry, releasing a long plume of smoke, "this has been the longest day of my fifty-six years.""I dare say it went well, though, as such things are reckoned?""Well, yes, inasmuch as the most appalling proofs of my cuckoldry were exposed to the ...public view," says Harry grimly. Cuckoldry's an old-fashioned word; what name should his shame go by, nowadays? "That's the perversity of the process," he goes on. "To be quit of Helen, I'm obliged to offer myself as a laughing stock to every newspaper reader in Britain."William claps him on the shoulder. "When a tar needs an amputation, what does the surgeon tell him?""Sharp and sore's soonest 'oer," quotes Harry, managing a half-grin. They smoke on in silence. "I'm awfully grateful you could be here," he remarks.William waves that away.MoreLess
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