letter bearing the London post-mark and in a familiar hand-writing was delivered to him. It ran:--
"You will no doubt have learnt before this reaches you of the marriage of that woman for whom you professed such deep and lasting affection, and whom you were horrified afterwards to learn--as I gather from your silence--was nothing more than a designing, wicked actress. I am sorry if I have wounded your vanity or your heart, but I could not withstand the temptation of testing the mettle of the young curate who fled in pious horror from under the roof which had the misfortune to shelter an actress. I hope that I have succeeded in proving to you at least that the horror you felt was only inspired by a word, and that after all an actress may still be sufficiently a woman to cause even a saint to come down from his pedestal and woo her."
She concluded by informing him that she had told her husband everything there was to tell concerning their "flirtation"--he gnashed his teeth at the word--and she enclosed the passionate letter which he had written her and for which she had no further use.
He had not the courage to read his own letter over again. But he took the immediate precaution of burning the two epistles in the same fire.
He has since become an ardent advocate of the celibacy of the clergy, and a trite aphorism which he is never tired of uttering is that appearances are extremely deceptive.
This story appears in The Life and Work of Rafael Sabatini web site. http://www.rafaelsabatini.com
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