Explore "The House by the River" by A.P. Herbert on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
John Egerton prepared himself to go round. He cursed himself for a weak fool; he reviled his fate, and Emily and Stephen Byrne. But he prepared himself. He was beaten.
But as he opened the front door the bell rang, and he saw Stephen himself on the doorstep -- a pale and haggard Stephen, blinking weakly at the sudden blaze of light in the hall.