so remained, and he would have taken oath in a court of law that the lilies and languors of virtue are incomparably better friends and neighbors and roommates than the roses and raptures of vice.
But he did his best to go on keeping the peace.
Edward's well-grounded habit of doing what he said he would do when he said he would do it was at the root of the trouble. Having promised the Ruggles to join them in Corsica he could only feel that the promise ought to be kept. Then one morning he waked with a new thought altogether. If Anne was so dead set against his going to Corsica, and so blatantly jealous and suspicious of Alice, why go? Why not break his promise and go somewhere else with Anne?
He did, and to his surprise it was to Corsica that they went. Anne chose to. Perhaps she hoped that there would be a chance meeting with Alice, at which it would be easily seen which of the heroines had walked off with the hero. But the Ruggles did not stay long in Corsica and the meeting did not take place. Edward painted his famous picture of the brigand's house and was very pleased with it, and with himself, and made love to Anne with redoubled fervor.
There is no Mann Act in Corsica. They came and went as they pleased, arousing only a tolerant,
