第14章

"CHARLES STRICKLAND."

"Not a word of explanation or regret.Don't you think it's inhuman?""It's a very strange letter under the circumstances," I replied.

"There's only one explanation, and that is that he's not himself.I don't know who this woman is who's got hold of him, but she's made him into another man. It's evidently been going on a long time.""What makes you think that?"

"Fred found that out.My husband said he went to the club three or four nights a week to play bridge.Fred knows one of the members, and said something about Charles being a great bridge-player.The man was surprised.He said he'd never even seen Charles in the card-room.It's quite clear now that when I thought Charles was at his club he was with her."I was silent for a moment.Then I thought of the children.

"It must have been difficult to explain to Robert," I said.

"Oh, I never said a word to either of them.You see, we only came up to town the day before they had to go back to school.I had the presence of mind to say that their father had been called away on business."It could not have been very easy to be bright and careless with that sudden secret in her heart, nor to give her attention to all the things that needed doing to get her children comfortably packed off.Mrs.Strickland's voice broke again.

"And what is to happen to them, poor darlings? How are we going to live?"She struggled for self-control, and I saw her hands clench and unclench spasmodically. It was dreadfully painful.

"Of course I'll go over to Paris if you think I can do any good, but you must tell me exactly what you want me to do.""I want him to come back."

"I understood from Colonel MacAndrew that you'd made up your mind to divorce him.""I'll never divorce him," she answered with a sudden violence."Tell him that from me.He'll never be able to marry that woman.I'm as obstinate as he is, and I'll never divorce him.I have to think of my children."I think she added this to explain her attitude to me, but I thought it was due to a very natural jealousy rather than to maternal solicitude.

"Are you in love with him still?"

"I don't know.I want him to come back.If he'll do that we'll let bygones be bygones.After all, we've been married for seventeen years.I'm a broadminded woman.I wouldn't have minded what he did as long as I knew nothing about it.He must know that his infatuation won't last.If he'll come back now everything can be smoothed over, and no one will know anything about it."It chilled me a little that Mrs.Strickland should be concerned with gossip, for I did not know then how great a part is played in women's life by the opinion of others.It throws a shadow of insincerity over their most deeply felt emotions.

It was known where Strickland was staying.His partner, in a violent letter, sent to his bank, had taunted him with hiding his whereabouts: and Strickland, in a cynical and humourous reply, had told his partner exactly where to find him. He was apparently living in an Hotel.

"I've never heard of it," said Mrs.Strickland."But Fred knows it well. He says it's very expensive."She flushed darkly. I imagined that she saw her husband installed in a luxurious suite of rooms, dining at one smart restaurant after another, and she pictured his days spent at race-meetings and his evenings at the play.

"It can't go on at his age," she said."After all, he's forty.I could understand it in a young man, but I think it's horrible in a man of his years, with children who are nearly grown up. His health will never stand it."Anger struggled in her breast with misery.

"Tell him that our home cries out for him.Everything is just the same, and yet everything is different.I can't live without him.I'd sooner kill myself.Talk to him about the past, and all we've gone through together.What am I to say to the children when they ask for him? His room is exactly as it was when he left it.It's waiting for him.We're all waiting for him."Now she told me exactly what I should say.She gave me elaborate answers to every possible observation of his.

"You will do everything you can for me?" she said pitifully."Tell him what a state I'm in."I saw that she wished me to appeal to his sympathies by every means in my power. She was weeping freely.I was extraordinarily touched.I felt indignant at Strickland's cold cruelty, and I promised to do all I could to bring him back.I agreed to go over on the next day but one, and to stay in Paris till I had achieved something.Then, as it was growing late and we were both exhausted by so much emotion, I left her.