Detective and mystery stories; Insurance fraud -- Fiction
"Well, I don't suppose I could keep on that game for long," said her
husband; "but I mean that I'll be awf'ly square, an' footle after you
round the town. It's th' sort of thing good husbands do, y' know. Give
us a kiss, old girl, an' we'll begin our married life all over again."
Leah obeyed very contentedly, and nestled in Jim's strong arms like an
innocent schoolgirl. She felt worn-out and tired, and drowsy from
excess of emotion; felt also that here was a much-desired haven for a
worried woman. "Dear old Jim!" she sighed, and Jim kissed her again.
The light was dying out of the sunset sky, and the room filled with
pale warm shadows. The reconciled pair sat silently on the sofa in the
gathering darkness, locked in a close embrace. The remorseful Jim felt
that they were prisoners in the same dock, and anxiously paved a
certain place with the very best intentions. Leah went to sleep,
thanks to a less tender conscience.
To the world these two were the prosperous and happy Duke and Duchess
of Pentland; to themselves, a misguided couple driven to do wrong by
circumstances; but to God--what did they appear in God's sight?
Remorse is not repentance, and remorse was the sole feeling of which
they were capable. Leah's sleep was the slumber of the worn-out; Jim's
self-promised reformation the result of shame. Shallow beings,
miserable creatures, they could not plumb the depth of their
wrong-doing. To them, sins were faults, and they were governed less by
the Sermon on the Mount than by the laws of society. Indeed, it is
questionable if either one of them was aware that such a sermon had
been preached; but both knew to a hair how far they could go without
being ostracised.
Jim was the better of the two, for the cold, brutal story told by his
wife made him hot with the public-school shame of having done things
which no fellow could do. The drastic codes of Eton and Harrow and
Rugby and Winchester came to his mind, and he saw how he had sinned
against the primitive laws of honour. Without oaths, he swore to lead
a better and cleaner life with Leah to help him. He would be
charitable and a good landlord, and take the chair at public
dinners, and speak in the Lords, and chuck Lady Sandal--who was too
expensive--and drop gambling to a certain extent, and not swear more
than necessary, and--and--do what a man in his high position ought to
do.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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