Chapter 5Vincent woke as he had fallen, naked on top of the bedclothes, as though barely a minute had passed since his rapid descent into sleep. Thankfully it was still summer, albeit the tail end, and so he was not cold; merely abashed. He was thirty now; he should have grown beyond such escapades.
Thirty and about to be married, he suddenly recalled, when he pushed himself up to a seated position and saw his suit, still hanging incongruously from his wardrobe door.
He felt poleaxed for a long moment, staring at the suit and wondering what on earth he had gotten himself into this time, and then regathered his thoughts and said aloud, “It is time.”
The basin of water on his cabinet was, due to the general heat of the air, not icy, at least; but it served wonderfully to refresh him, when
