Chapter 23

Mr. Gentle sighed. He never rose before nine, and he hated rowing. But this vivid creature pleaded so! Her eyes were so imploring! Her smile was so sweet! He was not young enough to resist her. For youth is hard. It is not true that temptation is worse for young men. It is the middle-aged men, wistful with loss or unfulfilment, prone to melancholy, reverential of youth, glad of any music to sing them out of remembrance of the gathering silence—it is they who find it hard to say no. Robert Rideout would have snapped…