The Affair at Islington Author:Matthew White General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1897 Original Publisher: F.A. Munsey Subjects: Fiction / General Fiction / Classics Fiction / Historical Fiction / Literary Fiction / Short Stories Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing... more » text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: V. OEATED in the smoking compartment, Dean tried to restore his nerves to their normal tension before going back to his wife. But it was a difficult task. His interview with Es- telle had convinced him of the fact that she cared deeply for him, so that now to love was added compassion. Over and over in his mind he repeated her every word ; every varying expression of her face was photographed there indelibly. " How brave she is!" he told himself. " May I have the strength to be as heroic a man as she is a woman, and do that which will raise, not lower me in her eyes! " Even while this resolve was forming, it was all Dean could do to remain where he was, when he realized that only a few steps would take him into the next car, were Estelle was sitting -- alone. Only by reminding himself that he was doing her will was he enabled to stay and smoke his cigar out. Then, resisting an almost overpowering temptation again to enter the coach ahead, he returned to his wife. She was eagerly awaiting him, anxious to talk over a situation in the novel he had bought for her, in which the interest centered on a mariage de convenance. " It seems to me," she said, " that they should have separated as soon as they found that it was really misery for them to live together. Don't you think that would be better, Gilbert, than constant bickering ? " " But that would be hard for the one who loved," Dean rejoined, his thoughts on an instance that was not in a novel. " It coul...« less