Page:The woman, the man, and the monster (IA womanmanmonster00dawe).pdf/276

 been given something even more sacred, the integrity of one who would be lost utterly without his wisdom and guidance. By God! Vermont, it’s a terrible thing to love a woman to distraction, and to desire her in spite of hell!”

While he was speaking Carey Vermont watched him with increasing wonder. At times he had no doubt of the man’s madness; again there came a doubt, and with it infinite concern. How much of this weird tale he was to believe he could not say, while the thought of being disloyal to Andromeda, even for a moment, filled him with an inconceivable contempt of himself. Yet while he despised and hated this intolerable monster, there were certain rappings at his brain which would not be wholly denied. That he would open to their insistence was entirely another matter. But in the meantime the man was here, and the situation was of extreme delicacy.

That Andromeda would return with her husband he did not for a moment believe, nor did he hide from himself the fact that of all possible solutions this was the one he least desired. Come what might he could not part