Henry shook his head, 'I was drunk,' he said, trying to sound both ashamed and firm in this belief. He remembered the rosebush incident very clearly, of course, but he knew that sneaking into the bedroom window of his fiancee's little sister wasn't something he wanted to explain to his father. Sometimes, Henry reflected, being taken for a perpetual drunk was sort of convenient.

A young lady's most natural ally is her sister although sometimes our own relatives are as inscrutable to us as an antipodean.

Henry turned his hat in his hands but went on looking at Diana in a way that made her want to crawl into his arms and stay there forever.

Among her other talents were forgetting what she did not like and ignoring what she preferred not to see.

She had rarely been near Henry since then, and the sight of him now was like a concentrated dose.

They will stop calling brides beautiful after today—you have simply set the standard too high,' he said.

The headiest loves were the loves that couldn't be.