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Oppenheim, E. Phillips (Edward Phillips), 1866-1946

"The Yellow Crayon"

Then I have the very
great advantage of never caring for any one more than a few days
together. Men find that annoying."
"You have violent fancies," he remarked, "and strange ones."
"Perhaps," she admitted. "They concern no one except myself."
"This Souspennier craze, for instance!"
She nodded.
"Well, you can't say that I'm not honest. It is positively my only
virtue. I adore the truth. I loathe a lie. That is one reason,
I daresay, why I can only barely tolerate you. You are a shocking
--a gross liar."
"Muriel!"
"Oh, don't look at me like that," she exclaimed irritably. "You
must hear the truth sometimes. And now, please remember that I
came to lunch with you to hear about your visit this morning."
The Prince gnawed his moustache, and the light in his eyes was not
a pleasant thing to see. This woman with her reckless life, her
odd fascination, her brusque hatred of affectations, was a constant
torment to him. If only he could once get her thoroughly into his
power.
"My visit," he said, "was wholly successful. It could not well be
otherwise. Lucille has returned to Dorset House. Souspennier is
confounded altogether by a little revelation which I ventured to
make. He spoke of an appeal. I let him know with whom he would
have to deal. I left him nerveless and crushed.


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