Read Online The Moon and Sixpence by W. Somerset Maugham - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: W. Somerset Maugham
Ads: Link
now it's finished. I'm as indifferent to him as if he were a stranger. I should like him to die miserable, poor, and starving, without a friend. I hope he'll rot with some loathsome disease. I've done with him.'
I thought it as well then to say what Strickland had suggested.
'If you want to divorce him, he's quite willing to do whatever is necessary to make it possible.'
'Why should I give him his freedom?'
'I don't think he wants it. He merely thought it might be more convenient to you.'
Mrs Strickland shrugged her shoulders impatiently. I think I was a little disappointed in her. I expected then people to be more of a piece than I do now, and I was distressed to find so much vindictiveness in so charming a creature. I did not realize how motley are the qualities that go to make up a human being. Now I am well aware that pettiness and grandeur, malice and charity, hatred and love, can find place side by side in the same human heart.
I wondered if there was anything I could say that would ease the sense of bitter humiliation which at present tormented Mrs Strickland. I thought I would try.
'You know, I'm not sure that your husband is quite responsible for his actions. I do not think he is himself. He seems to me to be possessed by some power which is using him for its own ends, and in whose hold he is as helpless as a fly in a spider's web. It's as though someone had cast a spell over him. I'm reminded of those strange stories one sometimes hears of another personality entering into a man and driving out the old one. The soul lives unstably in the body, and is capable of mysterious transformations. In the old days they would say Charles Strickland had a devil.'
Mrs MacAndrew smoothed down the lap of her gown, and gold bangles fell over her wrists.
'All that seems to me very far-fetched', she said acidly. 'I don't deny that perhaps Amy took her husband a little too much for granted. If she hadn't been so busy with her own affairs, I can't believe that she wouldn't have suspected something was the matter. I don't think that Alec could have something on his mind for a year or more without my having a pretty shrewd idea of it.'
The Colonel stared into vacancy, and I wondered whether anyone could be quite so innocent of guile as he looked.
'But that doesn't prevent the fact that Charles Strickland is a heartless beast.' She looked at me severely. 'I can tell you why he left his wife – from pure selfishness and nothing else whatever.'
'That is certainly the simplest explanation', I said. But I thought it explained nothing. When, saying I was tired, I rose to go, Mrs Strickland made no attempt to detain me.
16
What followed showed that Mrs Strickland was a woman of character. Whatever anguish she suffered she concealed. She saw shrewdly that the world is quickly bored by the recital of misfortune, and willingly avoids the sight of distress. Whenever she went out – and compassion for her misadventure made her friends eager to entertain her – she bore a demeanour that was perfect. She was brave, but not too obviously; cheerful, but not brazenly; and she seemed more anxious to listen to the troubles of others than to discuss her own. Whenever she spoke of her husband it was with pity. Her attitude towards him at first perplexed me. One day she said to me:
'You know, I'm convinced you were mistaken about Charles being alone. From what I've been able to gather from certain sources that I can't tell you, I know that he didn't leave England by himself.'
'In that case he has a positive genius for covering up his tracks.'
She looked away and slightly coloured.
'What I mean is, if anyone talks to you about it, please don't contradict it if they say he eloped with somebody.'
'Of course not.'
She changed the conversation as though it were a matter to which she attached no importance. I discovered presently that a peculiar story was circulating among her friends. They said that Charles Strickland had become infatuated
I thought it as well then to say what Strickland had suggested.
'If you want to divorce him, he's quite willing to do whatever is necessary to make it possible.'
'Why should I give him his freedom?'
'I don't think he wants it. He merely thought it might be more convenient to you.'
Mrs Strickland shrugged her shoulders impatiently. I think I was a little disappointed in her. I expected then people to be more of a piece than I do now, and I was distressed to find so much vindictiveness in so charming a creature. I did not realize how motley are the qualities that go to make up a human being. Now I am well aware that pettiness and grandeur, malice and charity, hatred and love, can find place side by side in the same human heart.
I wondered if there was anything I could say that would ease the sense of bitter humiliation which at present tormented Mrs Strickland. I thought I would try.
'You know, I'm not sure that your husband is quite responsible for his actions. I do not think he is himself. He seems to me to be possessed by some power which is using him for its own ends, and in whose hold he is as helpless as a fly in a spider's web. It's as though someone had cast a spell over him. I'm reminded of those strange stories one sometimes hears of another personality entering into a man and driving out the old one. The soul lives unstably in the body, and is capable of mysterious transformations. In the old days they would say Charles Strickland had a devil.'
Mrs MacAndrew smoothed down the lap of her gown, and gold bangles fell over her wrists.
'All that seems to me very far-fetched', she said acidly. 'I don't deny that perhaps Amy took her husband a little too much for granted. If she hadn't been so busy with her own affairs, I can't believe that she wouldn't have suspected something was the matter. I don't think that Alec could have something on his mind for a year or more without my having a pretty shrewd idea of it.'
The Colonel stared into vacancy, and I wondered whether anyone could be quite so innocent of guile as he looked.
'But that doesn't prevent the fact that Charles Strickland is a heartless beast.' She looked at me severely. 'I can tell you why he left his wife – from pure selfishness and nothing else whatever.'
'That is certainly the simplest explanation', I said. But I thought it explained nothing. When, saying I was tired, I rose to go, Mrs Strickland made no attempt to detain me.
16
What followed showed that Mrs Strickland was a woman of character. Whatever anguish she suffered she concealed. She saw shrewdly that the world is quickly bored by the recital of misfortune, and willingly avoids the sight of distress. Whenever she went out – and compassion for her misadventure made her friends eager to entertain her – she bore a demeanour that was perfect. She was brave, but not too obviously; cheerful, but not brazenly; and she seemed more anxious to listen to the troubles of others than to discuss her own. Whenever she spoke of her husband it was with pity. Her attitude towards him at first perplexed me. One day she said to me:
'You know, I'm convinced you were mistaken about Charles being alone. From what I've been able to gather from certain sources that I can't tell you, I know that he didn't leave England by himself.'
'In that case he has a positive genius for covering up his tracks.'
She looked away and slightly coloured.
'What I mean is, if anyone talks to you about it, please don't contradict it if they say he eloped with somebody.'
'Of course not.'
She changed the conversation as though it were a matter to which she attached no importance. I discovered presently that a peculiar story was circulating among her friends. They said that Charles Strickland had become infatuated
Similar Books
