Page:Caine - The Author of Trixie (1924).djvu/113

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THE AUTHOR OF "TRIXIE"
109

deuce is all this? This won't do at all."

"My dear Archdeacon," he said, "your offer is most generous; but, believe me, I have no wish to go back upon our bargain. I have lived through the worst of it by now. My reputation as a serious writer is gone beyond recall. I cannot permit you to make yourself uneasy about me."

The Archdeacon coughed behind his hand. "You mistake me, Bisham," he said. "It's about myself that I am uneasy. The time has come, my dear boy, for me to remember that I am an Archdeacon of the Church of England. It's a lie that we're acting, Bisham, and, come what may, I am resolved to proclaim the truth. My conscience will let me do no other."

Dunkle decided to abandon his scheme of threatening to expose his father-in-law