He turned to her - his gesture a superb compound of relief, remorse, passionate candour and bewilderment touched with curiosity; confidence and perfect penitence. Against which Scylla had to brace herself. Against such bravura how dull truth seemed, and difficult to access. Never had the bottom of a well seemed less attractive. She must hear him first. She could go down later.
Mary Butts, The Taverner Novels: Armed with Madness and Death of Felicity Taverner
dissembling, excuses, justification, lying, objectivity, responsibility, stories