His Own Image A Novel Author:Alan Dale General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1899 Original Publisher: G. W. Dillingham co. Subjects: Fiction / Literary Fiction / Romance / General Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this... more » book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: Chapter III REGINALD DISSIMULATES The great actor walked to his club, in order that he might plunge into the voluptuous luxury of hatred -- one of the most piquant satisfactions of life. He felt impelled toward the club, as the convicted criminal to the verdict that tells him the worst. He must mingle with the gossip-mongers and the scandal-brewers. He must drink the very dregs of this catastrophe, and see what he could do. He must dissimulate as usual; he must act more realistically than ever. And to the ego-maniac there is as much glory in acting off the stage as there is on it. He saw Felicia's humid face, as she collapsed beneath his keen shafts, but he felt no compassion for her. Tears to him were as valueless as laughter. He had a deep-rooted disbelief in either. She had wept because she had been detected in her surreptitious designs. He bit his lips in anger as he recalled her words: " Make me a super. Give me a part to think -- not to act." How well she must have known that such a course would be impossible ! Though he would have liked to humble her to the dust, to sink her to the lowest depths of uselessness, he would not dare to do it. And she was aware of that fact. How powerless a man is before a woman's wiles! He had selected Felicia as his leading lady for the simple reason that he had faith in the apparent colourlessness of her nature. She would never do anything of any consequence, he had thought. And he had sealed the bargain by loving her -- an arrangement in which he thought that bo...« less