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CHAPTER   XL

WAITING LADY  CLAUDIA's PLEASURE.

Stafford had probably painted his state of
mind in colours somewhat more startling than
the reality warranted. When a man is going
to act against his conscience, there is a sort of
comfort in making out that the crime has
features of more striking depravity than an
unbiassed observer would detect; the incli¬
nation in this direction is increased when it is
a question of impressing others. Sin seems
commonplace if we give it no pomp and cir¬
cumstance. No man was more free than
Stafford from any conscious hypocrisy or
posing, or from the inverted pride in immor¬
ality that is often an affectation, but also
more often than we are willing to allow a real
disease of the mind. But in his interview with
Morewood he had yielded to the temptation of
giving a more dramatic setting and stronger
contrasts to his conviction and his action than
the actual inmost movement of his mind justi¬
fied. It was true that he was determined to
set action and conviction in sharp antagonism,
and to follow an overpowering passion rather