Chapter 4: Afterwards
My host broke off and put the letter down.
“I keep from you the name of the author of this epistle,” he said with a smile. “For he did not authorize me to broadcast it. Nevertheless, I thought the message, and the story, might interest—and benefit you.”
I remember feeling slightly inclined to laugh, but the old man’s smile was so warm that I nodded. He regarded me curiously. “You have a question, I think?”
At this, I did laugh. “I was wondering how the letter might benefit me.”
The man raised his eyebrows questioningly.
“Well, I mean, it’s merely a story of a man’s unfortunate one-night romantic encounter. Such things hardly end in lasting relationships, surely.” I said this unblushingly. I was young and brash in my opinions then. I had perhaps less sympathy for
