E. R. Punshon

“ THOUGH Chris Palmer was certainly among the most fortunate of men, though on him it seemed that Nature had lavished every gift, in making him clever, handsome, attractive, capable, cheerful, though he was married to a woman whose face was as lovely as her disposition was sweet, though he had two as bonny little children as a proud parent could delight in, yet people often spoke of him with sympathy and pity as "poor Chris Palmer." ”

“ But I got Chris alone one day, and I asked him point-blank.
He hesitated a little.
"If I told you, you wouldn't believe me," he said.
"One seldom does when a thing's true," I remarked.
Finally he told me, and here's the story. I believe it, as I said before; but no one else is obliged to, and there is no explanation.
Mrs. Palmer's maiden name was Joyce, and as Miss Joyce she had fully intended never to marry. Her idea was to retire into some religious community when circumstances made that possible. ”

“ Palmer would never have permitted him to go to anything like such extremes had she had the least idea of what was happening. But, you see, Chris smiled on the fellow and spoke him fair, and took him into the garden, well out of hearing, and then set to work and flogged him till he dropped where he stood. There is no doubt Chris went too far, and he was lucky to get off with a fine. He didn't mind in the least—in fact, he at once presented the magistrates with twice the amount of the fine as a contribution to their poor-box. ”