"Once upon a time there lived in Berlin, Germany, a man called Albinus. He was rich, respectable, happy; one day he abandoned his wife for the sake of a youthful mistress; he love; was not loved; and his life ended in disaster.
"This is the whole of the story and we might have left it at that had there not been profit and pleasure in the telling; and although there is plenty of space on a gravestone to contain, bound in moss, the abridged version of a man's life, detail is always welcome." Chapter 1, p. 7.

" 'Forgive me,' he said. 'Don't be cross with me, Margot. I can't live without you. Look here, I've thought it all over. Drop your job. I'm rich.You shall have your own room, your own flat, anything you like...'
" 'You're a liar, a coward and a fool,' said Margot (summing...