and several are hinted at in the texts:

         An elaborate seduction

         A refuge from a scold-tobue wife

         A religious devotion

         But the principle,

that nothing is to be taken at face value,

that everything is but a rumour of angels,

is still a grandchild yet unborn

and not yet one of the dramatis personae.

So, let us give him the benefit of our doubt

and say only that here, perhaps,

is a man who has stumbled upon a scandal

with which he has developed an obsession,

a solitaire which he cannot put down

           until it falls out right.