Chapter 10 ten

A day or two later, Mrs. Strickland sent me a note asking me to come to her house that evening.I found her alone at home.She was dressed in black, so simple that it was almost serious, suggesting the misfortunes that had happened to her.True as her mournful feelings were, she had not forgotten to dress herself in accordance with the part the etiquette in her mind called her to play.I was so unsophisticated at the time and was very surprised. "You said you were willing to help me if I asked you anything," she began. "Not bad at all." "Then would you like to go to Paris and see how Strickland is?"

"I?" I was taken aback.It occurred to me that I had only seen Strickland once.I don't know what she wants me to do. "Fred is determined to go." Fred was Colonel MacAndrew. "But I know he's not the man for that. He's only going to make it worse. I don't know who to turn to." Her voice trembled a little, and I felt that even if I hesitated a little, it would appear heartless. "But I haven't spoken ten words to your husband. He doesn't know me. Maybe he'll send me away with one word." "It won't do you any harm," said Mrs. Strickland, laughing.

"What exactly do you want me to do?" She didn't answer my question directly. "I think it's to his advantage that he doesn't know you. You know, he never liked Fred. He thinks Fred is a fool. He doesn't understand soldiers. Fred can get very angry. There's a big fight between the two of you, and things go wrong. If you can't do it right, it'll be worse. If you tell him you're going on my behalf, he won't refuse you to talk to him." "I haven't known you very long," I replied. "It's a difficult thing to deal with unless you know all the details. I don't want to pry into things that don't concern me. Why don't you go and see him yourself?"

"You forget, he's not alone there." I didn't say anything.I think of me calling on Charles Strickland and handing me my card, and I think of him coming into the room and holding my card between two fingers. "What do you want to do?" "I've come to talk to you about your wife." "Really? When you're a few years older, you'll surely learn not to meddle in other people's business. If you turn your head a little to the left, you'll see there's a door there. Good-bye." Predictably, it was difficult for me to walk out with dignity.I do wish to be back in London a few days late, and not come back until Mrs. Strickland has settled the matter.I stole a glance at her.She was lost in thought.But she immediately looked up at me, sighed, and smiled.

"It came out of nowhere," she said. "We've been married for sixteen years and I never dreamed that Charles was such a person that he'd be infatuated with anyone. We've always gotten along very well. Of course, I have many hobbies." Unlike him." "Did you find out who it was"--I don't know how to put it--"who was it that went with him?" "No. It seems that no one knows about it. It's too strange. Under normal circumstances, if a man has a relationship with someone, he will always be seen, go out to eat or something. There are always several wives Friends came to tell her these things. I had no warning—no warning. His letter was like a bolt from the blue to me. I thought he had been living happily ever after."

She started to cry, poor woman, I feel so sorry for her.But after a while she gradually calmed down again. "I shouldn't be taken as a joke," she said, wiping her eyes. "The only thing to do is to decide quickly what to do." She went on talking, somewhat incoherently; now about the recent past, now about their first meeting and marriage.But in this way a fairly clear picture of their lives gradually formed in my mind.I think my guess in the past is still correct. Mrs. Strickland's father worked as a civil servant in India and settled in the remote countryside of England after retirement, but every August he would bring the whole family to Issey Terbaun went for a change of scenery.It was there that she met Charles Strickland.She was twenty that year, and Strickland was twenty-three.They played tennis together, walked on the Esplanade, and listened to mariachi singers.She had made up her mind to accept his proposal a week before he made it official.They settled down in London, at first in Hampstead, and then, as they became better off, moved into the city.They have two children.

"He always seemed to love the two kids. Even though he was tired of me, I don't understand how he would have the heart to throw the kids away too. It's all unbelievable. To this day I can't believe it's true thing." At last she showed me the letter he had written.I was a little curious, but never dared to raise it boldly. "There's not a single word of explanation, and there's no apology at all. Do you think this man is too inhuman?" "The letter is very strange in the circumstances," I replied. "There's only one explanation, and that's that the man has changed. I don't know which woman took him in the palm of her hand, but she must have turned him into someone else. It's very clear, and it's been going on for a long time. It's time."

"What basis do you have for thinking so?" "Fred has found out. My husband always says he goes to the club three or four nights a week to play bridge. Fred knows a member of that club, and told him once about Charles's liking for bridge. The man was very surprised, and said he had never seen Charles in the card room. That made it very clear that while I thought Charles was at the club, he was actually hanging out with that woman." I was speechless for a long time.Then I thought about the kids again. "It must be difficult to explain to Robert," I said. "Well, I didn't tell either of them. I didn't say a word. You know, they went back to school the day after we came back to town. I didn't panic. I told them that my father was away on business."

With such a big secret in mind, it was not easy to behave properly and pretend to be calm.Besides, the energy involved in getting everything in order to send the children to school also took a toll on her.Mrs. Strickland's voice broke. "What will they do in the future, poor baby? How will my family survive in the future?" She was trying to hold back her emotions, and I noticed her hands clenched and then loosened.The pain was simply horrific. "If you think it would be an advantage for me to go to Paris, of course I will, but you must tell me exactly what you want me to do."

"I'm going to call him back." "I take Colonel MacAndrew to mean that you have made up your mind to divorce him." "I'll never divorce him," she said suddenly and bitterly. "Tell him what I say, and he'll never marry that woman. I'm as stubborn as he is, and I'll never divorce him." .I want to think about my children." I think her last addition was to explain to me why she took this attitude, but I think she did it not so much from maternal love as from perfectly natural jealousy. "Do you still love him?" "I don't know. I want him back. If he comes back, I can let it go. Anyway, we've been married for seventeen years. I'm not a small-hearted woman. I've been kept in the dark in the past, as long as I don't know, and I wouldn't mind it. He should know the infatuation won't last. If he came back now, it would be easy to make up for it, and no one would find out."

Mrs. Strickland's interest in gossip gave me a chill, for I did not know at that time that the opinions of others mattered so much to a woman's life.I think this attitude casts a shadow of insincerity on their deep feelings. The place where Strickland lived was known to the family.His partner had written him a scathing letter through the bank in which Strickland had deposited his money, scolding him for hiding his whereabouts; Strickland told the partner in a cynical reply Where can one find him.It appears that he is staying in a hotel. "I've never heard of this place," said Mrs. Strickland. "But Fred knew the hotel very well. He said it was an expensive one." Her face flushed red.I imagined that she seemed to see her husband living in a luxurious apartment and eating in one fine restaurant after another.She imagined that he was living a life of debauchery, going to the racetrack every day and the theater every night. "You can't live like this at his age," she said. "He's forty after all. I'd understand it if he was a young man. But his age is terrible." , his children are about to grow up. Besides, his body can't bear it." Anger and pain wrestled in her chest. "Tell him that his home is calling him back. It's the same at home, but it's not the same. I can't live without him. I'd rather kill myself. Talk to him about the past, about us What would I say to the kids if they asked? His house is the same as when he left. His house is waiting for him. We are all waiting for him." She told me everything I should talk about when I got there.She even thought of what Strickland might say.Show me how to get it right. "You'll do everything in your power to get this done for me?" she said pitifully. "Tell him where I am." I saw that she wished me to do everything possible to impress his pity.Her tears kept falling.I was very sad.I was so angry at Strickland's cruelty that I promised her I would do everything in my power to get him back.I agreed to leave in another day and never come back until things were cleared up.By this time it was getting late, and we were both worn out with emotion, so I took her leave.