The Happy Hypocrite

Max Beerbohm's 63-page story, first published in 1896, is described on the dust jacket as "a golden butterfly, done by Whistler." It is a skillfully constructed miniature about a vile, boozing English lord who woos a pure maiden by putting on a saintly mask. The ending has the rare quality of being both surprising and seeming in hindsight to have been inevitable. The fine prose puts one in mind, on the American side, of James Branch Cabell.