"'A thousand kisses on your lovely rosebud of a mouth.' Don't you
think that is a little too warmly colored? And 'I am languishing for
the pressure of your ivory arms about my neck and the sweep of your
silken hair against my cheek!' What I mean is--well, what about it, you
know?"
"The phrases," said Mr. Teal, not without a touch of displeasure, "to
which you take exception, are taken bodily from correspondence (which I
happened to have the advantage of perusing) addressed by the late Lord
Evenwood to Animalcula, Queen of the High Wire at Astley's Circus. His
lordship, I may add, was considered an authority in these matters."
Roland criticized no more. He handed over the letters, which, at Mr.
Teal's direction, he had headed with various dates covering roughly a
period of about two months antecedent to his arrival at the Towers.
"That," Mr. Teal explained, "will make your conduct definitely
unpardonable. With this woman's kisses hot upon your lips,"--Mr. Teal
was still slightly aglow with the fire of inspiration--"you have the
effrontery to come here and offer yourself to her ladyship."
With Roland's timid suggestion that it was perhaps a mistake to overdo
the atmosphere, the butler found himself unable to agree.
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