I
This is the story Lionel would have told, if he could. But, poor devil,
he was as incapable of explaining himself as if he had been a creature
from another planet. Even the few extenuating circumstances of his case
he was never able to bring forward. He had always taken pride in his
reticence, in concealing his sentiments. And from having lain ignored so
long, they had grown unfamiliar to him, he didn’t know them when they
came forth. Didn’t actually recognise his own feelings, past or present.
He saw only that he was guilty; he accepted that sentence, not pleading
his own weakness even to himself.
Poor devil! Poor devil! He never even knew that he had been the innocent
victim of a most cruel seduction.