Theodore Winthrop

“ Consign such a woman to Densdeth! to the daily agony of a life with him! Little as I knew her, I felt that she was an exceptional soul, worthy of all tender loyalty from all men. I must do something to repair my wrong to her. I must at least inform her of the forgeries. I was too weak-spirited to do it myself. I called in a woman to help me.
“She was another that Densdeth had spoilt. She hated and dreaded him as much as I did. She naturally resented his marriage to another woman. I sent her to see Clara Denman. Densdeth found it out, and stopped it. He finds out everything, sooner or later. ”

“ Denman devised an operation. A crisis came. Denman delayed ruin — what money-men call ruin — by a monstrous fraud. We had expected it, and we alone discovered it. ‘Now,’ said Densdeth to me, ‘I have got the man.’ ‘What more do you want,’ said I, ‘than you have already gained by him?’ ‘I want his daughter Clara,’ he said. ‘She is the most brilliant woman in the world, — the only fit wife for me. But she will not think so, and I shall have to use force. Force is vulgar. ”

“ He examined them with a pleased, childish interest, and glanced about the room, observing the objects, while he sipped his restorative with feeble lips.
“Evidently not a bad man by nature,” I thought. “Only an impressible one, — one who should cry daily and hourly, ‘Lord, deliver me from temptation!’ If his superior being and chosen guide had been a hero, and not a devil like Densdeth, he might never have become the poor dastard he is.”
“You have a pretty place here, Mr. Byng,” said Towner, revived by his brandy, and assuming the air of a welcome guest and patronizing critic. ”