Explore "In Strict Confidence" by Grant Allen on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Louie stood long at the window, with the paper still clutched eagerly in her hand, afraid to open it and read the answer, and yet longing to know what the _Young People's Monitor_ had to say in reply to "Egeria. " So she watched Harry go down to the bathing machines and enter one -- it was still early in the season, and he had no need to wait; and then she watched them turning the windlass and letting it run down upon the shelving beach; and then she watched Harry swimming out and stemming the waves in his bold, manly fashion -- he was a splendid swimmer; and after that, unable any longer to restrain her curiosity, she tore the paper open with her finger, and glanced down the correspondence column till she reached the expected answer to "Egeria."
She read it over wondering and trembling, with a sudden awful sense of the editor's omniscience as she saw the letters "H. P. " -- her husband's initials -- Harry Pallant. "H. P.! " what could he mean by it? And then a vague dread came across her soul. What could "Egeria" and the editor of the _Young People's Monitor_ have to do with Harry Pallant?