And now it is known. Well, Oliver, there you
have it. And you happen to have us also--entirely in your hands. Because of
a spying, greedy servant--and my own stupidity and distrust--we have been
completely found out. And by one of my son's best friends.
"I wish that I could apologize for--all the scene before this. Better. I
hope that you will believe that I am trying to do so now. But I seldom make
apologies, Oliver, even when I am evidently in the wrong--and this hasn't
been one of my easiest to make. And now."
He sat back and waited, his fingers curled round his glass. And, as
he looked at him, Oliver felt a little sickish, for, on the whole, he
respected Mr. Piper a good deal more than his irreverent habit of mind
permitted him to respect most older people, and at the same time felt
pitifully sorry for him--it must be intensely humiliating to have to
explain this way--and yet the only thing Oliver could do was to take
the largest advantage possible of his very humiliation and
straightforwardness--the truth could still do nothing at all but wreck
everybody concerned.
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