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When the half-hour struck, he passed his hand across his

forehead, and then got up hastily and dressed himself with even

more than his usual care, giving a good deal of attention to the

choice of his necktie and scarf-pin and changing his rings more

than once. He spent a long time also over breakfast, tasting the

various dishes, talking to his valet about some new liveries that

he was thinking of getting made for the servants at Selby, and

going through his correspondence. At some of the letters, he

smiled. Three of them bored him. One he read several times over

and then tore up with a slight look of annoyance in his face.

"That awful thing, a woman's memory!" as Lord Henry had once

said.

After he had drunk his cup of black coffee, he wiped his lips

slowly with a napkin, motioned to his servant to wait, and going

over to the table, sat down and wrote two letters. One he put in

his pocket, the other he handed to the valet.