Man-woman relationships -- Fiction; Novelists -- Fiction; Secretaries -- Fiction; Voyages and travels -- Fiction; West Indies -- Fiction
One day, when Hazen was out of jail, and undoubtedly far away from the
city, I asked Statia if she would like to hear a diary of my journey to
the West Indies. She hesitated a little, saying finally that her answer
would depend a great deal on what the diary contained. I told her how I
had put the entire affair, from the beginning, into shape for
publication and what I wanted was her opinion of my scheme. While there
were many things that might not reflect great credit on me, there was
nothing, I believed, that it would be improper for her to hear. She
thought a little longer and then asked if she might not read it for
herself instead of having it read to her. I accepted the amendment,
being in fact glad she suggested it, and brought Miss May's MS. to her
the very next morning.
When a couple of days had passed Tom dropped in to say that his sister
would like to see me, if I found it convenient to run over. In another
hour I was in her presence. She met me with a frown on her pretty face
and stood for a minute regarding me silently.
"Don, have you told the whole truth in that manuscript?" she asked,
then.
"The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me!" I
responded with upraised hand.
"It is an awful avowal, take it altogether," she said, soberly. "I
almost wish you had not brought it to me. I never shall feel quite the
same after this. How could a woman of that description so affect a man
like you?"
"I am not going to discuss that," I answered. "Is it worth publishing,
that's the point? I have altered every name, you see, so no one not in
the secret will recognize a single person involved. It's a rather
unusual collection of occurrences, don't you think?"
She assented with a nod to the last proposition, and said as for the
literary "market" she supposed in its present state it was not over
squeamish.
"The success of the season is 'Quo Vadis,'" she added, "and I wasn't
able to read half of it. There is at least a lesson to be learned from
this experience of yours, if men will only heed the warnings."
"Thank you," I said, with polite irony, though I didn't agree with her
about Sienkiewicz' great work. "Can you think of anything I might add,
to round out the tale, as it were?"
A flush came into her face and a slight smile to the corners of her
mouth.
"Yes. You might say that 'Statia' admitted to you afterwards that the
letters signed 'Alice Brazier' were her own, copied by a friend in the
handwriting of the latter and sent from her residence."
My surprise, which was complete, turned the smile into a little laugh at
my expense.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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