The Alphonse Courrier Affair - Softcover

Alphonse Courrier (b. 1867) possessed all that might make a modestly ambitious man content: a respectable position in his Auvergne village, thanks to the prosperous ironmonger's shop he had started, a dutiful, and indeed cooly beautiful wife Agnes, who bore him two sons and ran a model household, and a secret mistress, Adele, who was plain but passionate. He was so much the apple of his mother's eye that when the old lady died, few people were more relieved than her dutiful daughter-in-law - and one of Agnes' first duties turned out to be the arrangement of her maid's marriage to a local carter when she judged the girl was making eyes at her husband. But Fate has a way of playing a joker just when you think you hold all the best cards. Assuredly the villagers could continue to indulge in their favourite blood-sport - gossip - but some secrets were too well-guarded even for the best of gossips.