Excerpt from The Education of Eric Lane: A Novel .. . A genial... bachelor, whom the outside world called selfish because it derived particular benefit from him... Oscar Wilde: The Picture of Dorian Gray. I Eric Lane, visible only from ear to chin above the waterline, peered through the steam of the bathroom at a travelling-clock on his dressing-table. The bath would have been improved by ather half handful of verbena salts; but, even lacking this, the water was still too hot to be lightly dismissed with an aggrieved gurgle down the waste-pipe. It was an added self-indulgence to kw that, if he lay gently boiling himself for more than ather minute, he would be late for dinner with Lady Poynter; but, if any one had to suffer, let it be Lady Poynter. It was t his fault that the rehearsal of The Bomb-Shell had dragged on until after seven; something had to be sacrificed-the letters which his secretary had left for him to sign, or the hot bath, or the cigarette and glass of sherry as he dressed, or (in the last resort and quite obviously) Lady Poynter. He had already foregone a cocktail, which would have made him two minutes later. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art techlogy to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.