Sheer Folly (Daisy Dalrymple Mysteries #18)

Chapter 1 Sheer Folly

When lovely woman stoops to folly,

And finds too late that men betray,

What charm can soothe her melancholy?

What art can wash her guilt away?

The only art her guilt to cover,

To hide her shame from every eye,

To give repentance to her lover,

And wring his bosom is—to die.

—Oliver Goldsmith, “When Lovely

Woman Stoops to Folly”