Read Online The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham - Free Book Online Page B

to his lips. His dark eyes were fixed on her.
    ‘Are you expecting me to come too?’
    ‘I thought you’d like to.’
    Her breath began to come very fast. A shudder passed through her.
    ‘But surely it’s no place for a woman. The missionary sent his wife and children down weeks ago and the A.P.C. man and his wife came down. I met her at a tea-party. I’ve just remembered that she said they left some place on account of cholera.’
    ‘There are five French nuns there.’
    Panic seized her.
    ‘I don’t know what you mean. It would be madness for me to go. You know how delicate I am. Dr. Hayward said I must get out of Hong-Kong on account of the heat. I could never stand the heat up there. And cholera: I should be frightened out of my wits. It’s just asking for trouble. There’s no reason for me to go. I should die.’
    He did not answer. She looked at him in her desperation and she could hardly restrain a cry. His face had a sort of black pallor which suddenly terrified her. She saw in it a look of hatred. Was it possible that he wanted her to die? She answered her own outrageous thought.
    ‘It’s absurd. If you think you ought to go it’s your own lookout. But really you can’t expect me to. I hate illness. A cholera epidemic. I don’t pretend to be very brave and I don’t mind telling you that I haven’t pluck for that. I shall stay here until it’s time for me to go to Japan.’
    ‘I should have thought that you would want to accompany me when I am about to set out on a dangerous expedition.’
    He was openly mocking her now. She was confused. She did not quite know whether he meant what he said or was merely trying to frighten her.
    ‘I don’t think any one could reasonably blame me for refusing to go to a dangerous place where I had no business or where I could be of no use.’
    ‘You could be of the greatest use; you could cheer and comfort me.’
    She grew even a little paler.
    ‘I don’t understand what you’re talking about.’
    ‘I shouldn’t have thought it needed more than average intelligence.’
    ‘I’m not going, Walter. It’s monstrous to ask me.’
    ‘Then I shall not go either. I shall immediately file my petition.’

23
    She looked at him blankly. What he said was so unexpected that at the first moment she could hardly gather its sense.
    ‘What on earth are you talking about?’ she faltered.
    Even to herself her reply rang false, and she saw the look of disdain which it called forth on Walter’s stern face.
    ‘I’m afraid you’ve thought me a bigger fool than I am.’ She did not quite know what to say. She was undecided whether indignantly to assert her innocence or to break out into angry reproaches. He seemed to read her thoughts.
    ‘I’ve got all the proof necessary.’
    She began to cry. The tears flowed from her eyes without any particular anguish and she did not dry them: to weep gave her a little time to collect herself. But her mind was blank. He watched her without concern, and his calmness frightened her. He grew impatient.
    ‘You’re not going to do much good by crying, you know.’
    His voice, so cold and hard, had the effect of exciting in her a certain indignation. She was recovering her nerve.
    ‘I don’t care. I suppose you have no objection to my divorcing you. It means nothing to a man.’
    ‘Will you allow me to ask why I should put myself to the smallest inconvenience on your account?’
    ‘It can’t make any difference to you. It’s not much to ask you to behave like a gentleman.’
    ‘I have much too great a regard for your welfare.’
    She sat up now and dried her eyes.
    ‘What do you mean?’ she asked him.
    ‘Townsend will marry you only if he is corespondent and the case is so shameless that his wife is forced to divorce him.’
    ‘You don’t know what you’re talking about,’ she cried.
    ‘You stupid fool.’
    His tone was so contemptuous that she flushed with anger. And perhaps her anger was greater because she had never