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He caressed her hair as she continued to unfasten his clothing, and said dreamily "If I were truly a brave man, I would take you and my children, and ould sail away to the Sandwich Islands together, and live there, the world well lost But I’m not that brave"

She interrupted her task and said somberly, "You would co you forsake your honor"

"But you don’t ask that," he said, holding her face in his hands and scrutinizing her features

"In tirih to sustain your loathing"

"How could I do that?" He asked her, htness she displayed in the face of his examination

"You would," she said, and moved back to let him step out of his trousers "I will fill the tub for you; the water is nearly war froe pots "Then you will bathe and ill have tiether" She reached for the pot holders and lifted the first of the vessels from the stove As she ey by bath salts

Sherman was down to his underwear and shoes; he started to protest her labors, but stopped and offered, "Shall I help you out of your clothes, as well?"

Madelaine emptied the second pot, "No I will do that once you are in the bath," she assured him

"Where I can watch," he ventured

"Of course" By the time she had poured the contents of the third pot into the tub, Sherathering up his clothes and setting theood it hurts," Shere and soap from the stand beside the tub

"Then enjoy it," said Madelaine, reaching to release the fastenings of her bodice as she went toward the bathtub

San Francisco, 8 September,

I am almost finished with my chapter on the Utes, which pleases me tremendously I tell ends and other teachings clearly enough so that the most opinionated of university-bound scholars cannot misinterpret what I have said But

I know such lucidity is impossible, so I must be content to accept my satisfaction as sufficient to the task

Tecuhts out of the last ten, and he alternates between anguish at his lax-ness and joy for our passion When he is not berating himself, he tells me he has never been so ratification that he thought did not exist except between the covers of novels But this rapture is always acco that he will not shame his wife any more than he has done already, and that he will never leave his children He refuses to be convinced that I do not wish hi I have said to the contrary has o to an afternoon party given by Mr Folsoe of Captain and Mrs Kent--or so reads the invitation that was delivered to me last week Baron deStoeckl has offered to be my escort, and I suppose I will accept…

Fanny Kent was radiant in a flounced gown of peach-colored tarlatan over petticoats a la Duchesse; her eardrops were baroque pearls surant and hideous necklace of diaiven her for this occasion She took advantage of every opportunity to show off these splendid presents, coquetting prettily for all those illing to compliment her

Beside her, Captain Kent was in a claw-tail coat of dark-blue superfine over a waistcoat of e with pride as he lifted his chalass to his wife and thanked her for "the ten happiest years of hted by the applause that followed

"I won’t bother to bring you wine," the Russian Baron whispered to Madelaine after they had greeted their host "But excuse et so the wave Fanny Kent gave her "You do not have to wait upon racious, as always," said deStoeckl, and went off to have soo sit with the s and dowagers in the kiosk, nor did she want to join the younger wives, all of who about the unreliability of servants, the precocity of their children, and the a to contribute to their conversation, so instead, she went to where a new bed of flowers had been planted; she occupied her tihts faintly distracted by the realization that she would have to ht her to concoct nearly a century ago; she did not hear Fanny Kent’s light, tripping step behind her