Chapter 24 Chapter Twenty-Three

"We'd better wait here until the crowd clears up," said Robert. "Then they let us go out the back door." At the same time, he was puzzled by the cloudy and unsmiling look on Marianne's face.She seemed to be still immersed in the unexpected shock and hadn't recovered yet. Was the tension these days worse than expected? As if noticing his perplexity, she said, "That woman, that poor woman. I can't stop thinking about her." "Who?" asked Robert, a little silly. "The girl's foster mother. Can you imagine anything more horrifying than that? Losing your home is bad enough—yes, Rob, my dear, you don't need to tell us." A copy of the latest "Laboratory Times" with the last news of the day inserted urgently before going to press, under the headline: "The Franchise, the House Famous for the Kidnapping of Milford Town, Burnt down in a fire last night. "If that news had come before yesterday, it would have been the saddest tragedy. But now, compared with what happened to the woman, the fire in the house was just a random accident. Think about Xiang, and suddenly find that the same person as you How chilling and heartbreaking is it that the person who lived under the same roof for so long, and whom you gave all your love and cared for, not only disappeared, but never existed at all? The person who cares about you not only doesn't love you at all, let alone care about you, the news hits you mercilessly like a slap in the face. How shocking and astonishing will it be? A person who has such an experience, will How will it affect her life? She may no longer be able to walk freely on the green and beautiful grass, because from now on she will constantly worry whether her foot will step on the puddles hidden under the green grass again. "

"Yeah," Kevin said, "I can't bear to look at her either. It's so unfair what she's suffering." "She's got a lovely son, too," said Mrs. Sharp. "I hope he will give her some comfort." "But, don't you see?" said Marianne, "she didn't have her son's heart either. She's got nothing now. She thought she had Betty the child. She loved her that way, that love for that Sure, like she did with her son. But the mainstay of her life has been ruthlessly taken away. Now that appearances are proven to be anything but credible, how will she judge people from now on? No. She's lost it all .There is only loneliness and desolation. I really feel sorry for her."

Kevin put his arms around her shoulders and said, "You've had enough torture yourself recently, stop worrying about others. Come on, I think they should be able to get us out. You see the police with their profession Were you happy when you surrounded those who perjured with the politeness of the world?" "No, I'm so preoccupied with the suffering of that poor woman that I can't think of anything else." It turned out that this was the angle and mood she viewed today's trial. Kevin didn't listen to her. "And as soon as the judges leave the seat, all the media reporters swarmed and competed for the only telephone regardless of the image. Do you think it's funny? I promise you, you will read it from beginning to end in every newspaper in the UK. Excused and exonerated in every detail. That will be the most famous pleading in history. Wait here for me while I take off this court robe and be right back."

"I think we'd better spend a night or two at the hotel, don't we?" said Mrs. Sharp. "Did we have anything salvaged?" "Yes, I'm happy to say quite a few," Robert told her, describing what had been salvaged. "But there's an alternative to staying in a hotel." Then he told them of Stanley's suggestion. So it was a little house on the edge of the town where Marianne and her mother came back afterward; that is, in the living room in the front hall of Miss Sheamer's house, where they sat together to celebrate the victory—it was a Small party with Marianne, her mother, Rob and Stanley.Kevin has gone back to other things.There is a large pot of beautiful flowers on the table, which was sent by Aunt Lin, and there is also a note of aunt Lin's warmest sympathy.Although Aunt Lin's warm and attentive note is the same as her usual "Honey, how's your day?", it doesn't mean much, but it does make the ordinary life a little more angry.Stanley had brought a copy of the latest Rabolo Times, the front page of which was the report of the trial.The title is: The Liar Appears.

"Would you like to play golf with me tomorrow afternoon?" Robert asked Marion. "You've been locked up for too long. We can start earlier, before everyone else has finished their lunch so we can have the whole venue." "Okay, I'd love to," she said. "I guess starting tomorrow, the bits and pieces of normal life, the good and the bad, will all come back. But tonight is a continuation of the horrors, but it's almost over." When he went to pick her up the next day, life seemed full of exciting surprises. "You can't imagine how happy it is," she said. "I mean, live in a house like this. You just turn on the tap and the hot water comes rolling in."

"It's also very educational," Mrs. Sharp said. "Educational?" "You could hear every word of the conversation next door." "Well, don't exaggerate, mother! Not every word!" "Every three words," corrected Mrs. Sharp. Then they happily set off to the golf course, and Robert decided that he would propose to her when they had tea at the club later.But would there be too many people there to bother them, soliciting their condolences for the harassment they received during the trial? Or would it be better to raise it on the way home? The old house--there was so much of her in that house, and it would be cruel to keep her from dying there--so it would be best to find another small house in Milford Town as a place for Marianne and himself. small nest.But no now, it may not be easy to do, but if it is not possible, they can temporarily live upstairs in Buhapo's office.It is now a storage room for a pile of documents accumulated by the office over the past two hundred years; but those documents are old enough to enter the museum, and it is long overdue to do something about it.

Yes, he decided, asking her on the way home. But that decision didn't last long and was overturned again, because he found that he kept circling in his mind what he was going to say later, which made him restless and unable to concentrate on playing. When he finally reached the ninth hole, he suddenly stopped putting and said, "Marian, I wish you would marry me." "Really, Rob?" She was pulling out the pole while she was setting the bag down on the grass. "You do, don't you?" "No, my dear Robert, I would not." "But, Marianne! Why? Why not?"

"Well—as the kids would say, 'because'." "Why?" "There are half a dozen reasons, any of which can stand on their own. One of them is that if a man is a widow after forty, it means that marriage is not the way he wants to live—it's a sudden accident, Like a cold, or a rheumatism, or an income tax bill. I don't want to be that accident in your life." "But that's..." "And I don't think I'm going to be a worthwhile asset for Buhapo. Even if..." "I'm not asking you to marry Buhapo Firm. " "Even having proven I wasn't the one who beat up Betty Kane won't get people to stop referring to me as 'the woman in the Kenn case': that's something the wife of a senior law firm partner shouldn't be burdened with. Fame. It won't do you any good, Robert, trust me."

"Marian, for God's sake! Stop..." "Then you have Aunt Lynn and I have my mother. We can't keep them like chewing gum. Not only do I like my mother, I love her. I adore her and am content to live with her. And you Well, getting used to being spoiled by Aunt Lynn - yes, you - will miss those comforts dearly, more than you can imagine now; and I don't know how to pay for them - even if I did, object It won't be you either." After she finished speaking, she gave him an exaggerated smile. "Marian, it is because you don't indulge me that I want to marry you.

Because you have a mature mind, and a..." "It's charming to have dinner once a week with a mature mind, but after you've been cared for by Aunt Lynn for half your life, you'll find that using that in a warm and harmonious atmosphere The long-term exchange of eating delicious meals is not very worthwhile. " "There's another reason you haven't mentioned yet," said Robert. "What is it?" "Don't you care about me at all?" "Well, I care about you very much, more than anyone else, I think. And that's part of the reason why I don't want to marry you. And it's because of myself."

"yourself? " "Look, I'm not the type of woman to marry. I don't want to change myself to put up with someone else's crochet, someone else's request, or even someone else's little cold. Mother and I get along perfectly because we don't demand each other If someone between us has a small cold, she will quietly retreat to the room by herself, digest the gloom and boredom by herself, and then join the ranks of normal life when she recovers. But no husband can do this Endure. He'll expect pity - even if he catches a cold because he doesn't pay attention to dressing himself - will still want sympathy, care, feeding. No, Rob, there are hundreds of women out there who will rush to take care of a cold people. Why did you single me out?" "Because you're one of those hundreds of women, and I love you." She seemed a little regretful. "I sound too flippant, don't I? But I'm not flattering, but quite reasonable." "But, Marianne, it's a lonely life..." "But in my experience, the so-called fulfilled life is completely filled with other people's demands." "—but your mother won't be with you forever." "Knowing my mother as well as I do, I don't have the slightest doubt that she will outlive me. You have better options: I know old General Whittaker had four daughters." He subconsciously pushed the golf ball he was playing on the grass into the hole. "So what do you do?" he asked. "What if I don't marry you?" He gritted his teeth.She was right, perhaps it would not be comfortable living long with such a cynical mind. "Now that you have lost Franchise, what are your plans with your mother?" She didn't answer for a long time, as if she didn't know what to say, she just turned her back to him, pretending to be busy playing with her bag. "We're going to Canada," she said finally. "Go—leave!" She still has his back. "yes." He froze in amazement. "But, Marion, you can't. Why go to Canada?" "I have a professor cousin. The son of my only aunt. He wrote to my mother early on asking if we would help him look after the house, while we had inherited the Franchise and lived in England. So happy. So we said no. But that invitation was still waiting for us to answer. And we -- we're happy to have that option now." "I understand." "Don't be so downcast. You don't know what a disaster you've escaped, my dear." Then they concentrated like professional players and continued to play silently. As he drove Marion back to Miss Simul's and drove into Sheen Lane, Robert thought wryly to himself that of all the new life experiences he had had himself since getting to know the Sharps, now Adding another touch, he became a rejected suitor.That should have been the end of the whole incident, and perhaps the surprise that caught him off guard the most. Three days later, they sold the salvaged furniture from the fire to the local furniture store, left the car with Stanley, who complained about it, and left Milford on a train.Catch an old toy Local Line train to Norton's Grand Station, then change to the express train.Robert rides with them to Norton and says good-bye to them at the main station. "I've always preferred to travel light," said Marion, looking at their meager luggage. "I never thought I'd shrink down to something like this for a night, and we were going to Canada." But Robert wasn't in the mood for such meaningless small talk.His whole heart was filled with sadness and loneliness. He hadn't felt this kind of mood for a long time. He used to only feel such distress and depression when he had to go back to school because the vacation was over when he was a child.Beautiful flowers blooming on both sides of the railway tracks filled the window view, and the fields were covered with little yellow buttercups, but the world in Robert's mind was gray and drizzling. Then he watched the departing London train carrying them disappear on the other side of the track, and he went home dejectedly, thinking about how he would adjust to the small town of Milford without Marianne's lanky figure and brown face. But he's doing fine.He returned to his afternoon golf routine; though the little white ball would always be a rubber ball in his mind from now on, he still maintained his skillful attitude.Mr. Hasseltine was delighted by his renewed enthusiasm for his work.He suggested to Naville that they'd better start sorting out the files that were sorted upstairs in the office, or assemble them into volumes.So it was three weeks before he received Marianne's farewell letter from London.Milford's stable and peaceful life has slowly surrounded him unconsciously. My dear Robert (Marianne wrote): This is a hastily written greeting just to let you know that you are both on our minds.We will depart for Montero the morning after tomorrow.Time has almost filtered out all the unpleasant memories of that incident, and we found that all the beautiful and warm bits remained in our minds.This may simply be a simmering homesickness.I have no idea.I only know that when I think of you, it will always be accompanied by happiness.And Stanley, Bill -- and England. Sending love and gratitude from both of us. Marion Sharp He spread the letter out on his mahogany and copper-inlaid desk, letting it bathe in a ray of afternoon sun. By this time tomorrow, Marianne will not be in England.It was unbearable, but there was nothing he could do but deal calmly with the fact.Indeed, what can be done? Then suddenly asked, three things happened at the same time. Mr. Hasseltine poked his head in and said Mrs. Loumax was going to change her will again, and asked if he could come to her farm right away? Aunt Lynn called and asked him to stop by and buy fish on his way home. And Miss Teff brought his tea. He stared blankly at the two digestive biscuits lying flat on the plate. Today, digestive biscuits are paired with tea as usual.Then, as if making up his mind, he pushed away the tea tray, picked up the telephone receiver, and started dialing.