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18 - Moon and Sixpence by W. Somerset Maugham · Moon and Sixpence

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Speaker 1: Chapters forty nine, fifty and fifty one of the Moon
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Speaker 1: and Sixpence. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings
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Speaker 1: are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer,
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Speaker 1: please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Barry Eads. The
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Speaker 1: Moon and Sixpence by William Somerset, mom chapter forty nine.
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Speaker 1: I lived at the Hotel de Lafleur, and Missus Johnson,
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Speaker 1: the proprietress, had a sad story to tell of lost opportunity.
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Speaker 1: After Strickland's death, certain of his effects were sold by
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Speaker 1: auction in the market place at Popy eighty, and she
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Speaker 1: went to it herself because there was among the truck
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Speaker 1: an American stove she wanted. She paid twenty seven francs
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Speaker 1: for it. There were a dozen pictures, she told me,
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Speaker 1: but they were unframed and nobody wanted them. Some of
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Speaker 1: them sold for as much as ten francs, but mostly
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Speaker 1: they went for five or six. Just think if I
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Speaker 1: had bought them, I should be a rich woman now.
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Speaker 1: But Tierre Johnson would never, under any circumstances, have been rich.
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Speaker 1: She could not keep money. The daughter of a native
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Speaker 1: and an English sea captain, settled in Tahiti. When I
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Speaker 1: knew her, she was a woman of fifty who looked older,
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Speaker 1: and of enormous proportions, tall and extremely stout. She would
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Speaker 1: have been of imposing presents if the good nature of
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Speaker 1: her face had not made it impossible for her to
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Speaker 1: express anything but kindliness. Her arms were like legs of mutton,
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Speaker 1: her breasts like giant cabbages. Her face, broad and fleshy,
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Speaker 1: gave you an impression of almost indecent nakedness. And vast
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Speaker 1: chin succeeded to vast chin. I do not know how
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Speaker 1: many of them there were. They fell away voluminously into
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Speaker 1: the capaciousness of her bosom. She was dressed usually in
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Speaker 1: a pink mother Hubbard, and she wore all day long
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Speaker 1: a large straw hat. But when she let down her hair,
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Speaker 1: which she did now in for she was vain of it,
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Speaker 1: you saw that it was long and dark and curly,
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Speaker 1: and her eyes had remained young and vivacious. Her laughter
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Speaker 1: was the most catching I ever heard. It would begin
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Speaker 1: a low peal in her throat, and would grow louder
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Speaker 1: and louder till her whole vast body shook. She loved
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Speaker 1: three things. A joke, a glass of wine and a
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Speaker 1: handsome man. To have known her is a privilege. She
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Speaker 1: was the best cook on the island, and she adored
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Speaker 1: good food. From morning till night. You saw her sitting
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Speaker 1: on a low chair in the kitchen, surrounded by a
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Speaker 1: Chinese cook and two or three native girls giving her orders,
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Speaker 1: chatting sociably with all and sundry and tasting the savory
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Speaker 1: message she devised. When she wished to do honor to
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Speaker 1: a friend, she cooked the dinner with her own hands.
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Speaker 1: Hospitality was a passion with her, and there was no
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Speaker 1: one on the island who need go without a dinner
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Speaker 1: when there was anything to eat. At the Hotel de Lafleur,
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Speaker 1: she never turned her customers out of her house because
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Speaker 1: they did not pay their bills. She always hoped they
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Speaker 1: would pay when they could. There was one man there
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Speaker 1: who had fallen on adversity, and to him she had
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Speaker 1: given board and lodging for several months. When the Chinese
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Speaker 1: laundry man refused to wash for him without payment, she
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Speaker 1: had sent his things to be washed with hers. She
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Speaker 1: could not allow the poor fellow to go about in
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Speaker 1: the dirty shirt, she said, And since he was a man,
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Speaker 1: and men must smoke. She gave him a franc a
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Speaker 1: day for cigarettes. She used him with the same affability
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Speaker 1: as those of her clients, who paid their bills once
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Speaker 1: a week. Age and obesity had made her inapt for love,
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Speaker 1: but she took a keen interest in the amatory affairs
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Speaker 1: of the young. She looked upon venery as the natural
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Speaker 1: occupation for men and women, and was ever ready with
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Speaker 1: precept and example from her own wide experience. I was
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Speaker 1: not fifteen when my father found that I had a lover.
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Speaker 1: She said. He was third mate on the Tropic Bird.
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Speaker 1: A good looking boy, she sighed a little. They say
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Speaker 1: a woman always remembers her first lover with affection, but
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Speaker 1: perhaps she does not always remember him. My father was
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Speaker 1: a sensible man. What did he do, I asked. He
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Speaker 1: thrashed me within an inch of my life, and then
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Speaker 1: he made me marry Captain Johnson. I did not mind.
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Speaker 1: He was older, of course, but he was good looking too. Tierre,
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Speaker 1: her father had called her by the name of the
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Speaker 1: white scented flower, which they tell you, if you have
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Speaker 1: once smelt, will always draw you back to Tahiti in
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Speaker 1: the end, however far you may have roamed. Tierre remembered
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Speaker 1: Strickland very well. He used to come here sometimes, and
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Speaker 1: I used to see him walking about Poppy eighty. I
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Speaker 1: was sorry for him. He was so thin, and he
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Speaker 1: never had any money. When I heard he was in town,
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Speaker 1: I used to send a boy to find him and
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Speaker 1: make him come to dinner with me. I got him
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Speaker 1: a job once or twice, but he couldn't stick to anything.
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Speaker 1: After a little while, he wanted to get back to
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Speaker 1: the book, and one morning he would be gone. Strickland
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Speaker 1: reached Tahiti about six months after he left Marseilles. He
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Speaker 1: worked his passage on a sailing vessel that was making
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Speaker 1: the trip from Auckland to San Francisco, and he arrived
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Speaker 1: with a box of paints, an easel, and a dozen canvases.
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Speaker 1: He had a few pounds in his pocket for he
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Speaker 1: had found work in Sydney, and he took a small
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Speaker 1: room in a native house outside the town. I think
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Speaker 1: the moment he reached Tahiti he felt himself at home.
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Speaker 1: Tierre told me that he said to her once, I've
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Speaker 1: been scrubbing the deck, and all at once a chap
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Speaker 1: said to me, why there it is? And I looked
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Speaker 1: up and I saw the outline of the island. I
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Speaker 1: knew right away that there was the place I'd been
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Speaker 1: looking for all my life. Then we came near, and
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Speaker 1: I seemed to recognize it. Sometimes when I walk about,
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Speaker 1: it all seems familiar. I could swear I've lived here before.
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Speaker 1: Sometimes it takes them like that, said Tierre. I've known
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Speaker 1: men come on shore for a few hours while their
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Speaker 1: ship was taken in cargo, and never go back. And
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Speaker 1: I've known men who came here to be in an
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Speaker 1: office for a year, and they cursed the place, and
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Speaker 1: when they went away they took their dying oath. They'd
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Speaker 1: hang themselves before they came back again, and in six
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Speaker 1: months you'd see them land once more, and they'd tell
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Speaker 1: you they couldn't live anywhere else. So ends Chapter forty nine,
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Speaker 1: Chapter fifty. I have an idea that some men are
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Speaker 1: born out of their due place. Accident has cast them
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Speaker 1: amid certain surroundings, but they have always a nostalgia for
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Speaker 1: a home they know not. They are strangers in their birthplace,
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Speaker 1: and the leafy lanes they have known from childhood, or
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Speaker 1: the populous streets in which they have played, remain but
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Speaker 1: a place of passage. They may spend their whole lives
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Speaker 1: aliens among their kindred and remain aloof among the only
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Speaker 1: scenes they have ever known. Perhaps it is this sense
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Speaker 1: of strangeness that sends men far and wide in the
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Speaker 1: search for something permanent to which they may attach themselves.
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Speaker 1: Perhaps some deep rooted atavism urges the wanderer back to
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Speaker 1: lands which his ancestors left in the dim beginnings of history.
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Speaker 1: Sometimes a man hits upon a place to which he
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Speaker 1: mysteriously feels that he belongs. Here is the home he sought,
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Speaker 1: and he will settle amid scenes that he has never
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Speaker 1: seen before, among men he has never known, as though
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Speaker 1: they were familiar to him from his birth. Here at
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Speaker 1: last he finds rest I told Tierre the story of
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Speaker 1: a man I had known at Saint Thomas's Hospital. He
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Speaker 1: was a Jew named Abraham, a blond, rather stout young man,
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Speaker 1: shy and very unassuming, but he had remarkable gifts. He
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Speaker 1: entered the hospital with a scholarship, and during the five
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Speaker 1: years of the curriculum, gained every prize that was open
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Speaker 1: to him. He was made house physician and house surgeon.
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Speaker 1: His brilliance was allowed by awe. Finally, he was elected
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Speaker 1: to a position on the staff and his career was assured.
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Speaker 1: So far as human things can be predicted, it was
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Speaker 1: certain that he would rise to the greatest heights of
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Speaker 1: his profession. Honors and wealth awaited him. Before he entered
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Speaker 1: upon his new duties, he wished to take a holiday, and,
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Speaker 1: having no private means, he went as surgeon on a
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Speaker 1: tramp steamer to the levant. It did not generally carry
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Speaker 1: a doctor, but one of the senior surgeons at the
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Speaker 1: hospital knew a director of the line, and Abraham was
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Speaker 1: taken as a favor. In a few weeks, the authorities
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Speaker 1: received his resignation of the coveted position on the staff.
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Speaker 1: It created profound astonishment, and wild rumors were current. Whenever
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Speaker 1: a man does anything unexpected, his fellows ascribe it to
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Speaker 1: the most discredible motives. But there was a man ready
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Speaker 1: to step into Abraham's shoes, and Abraham was forgotten. Nothing
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Speaker 1: more was heard of him. He vanished. It was perhaps
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Speaker 1: ten years later that one morning, on board ship about
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Speaker 1: to land at Alexander Andrea, I was bidden to line
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Speaker 1: up with the other passengers for the doctor's examination. The
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Speaker 1: doctor was a stout man in shabby clothes, and when
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Speaker 1: he took off his hat, I noticed that he was
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Speaker 1: very bald. I had an idea that I had seen
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Speaker 1: him before. Suddenly I remembered Abraham, I said. He turned
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Speaker 1: to me with a puzzled look, and then, recognizing me,
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Speaker 1: seized my hand. After expressions of surprise on either side.
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Speaker 1: Hearing that I meant to spend the night in Alexandria,
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Speaker 1: he asked me to dine with him at the English Club.
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Speaker 1: When we met again, I declared my astonishment at finding
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Speaker 1: him there. It was a very modest position that he occupied,
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Speaker 1: and there was about him an air of straitened circumstance.
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Speaker 1: Then he told me his story. When he set out
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Speaker 1: on his holiday in the Mediterranean, he had every intention
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Speaker 1: of returning to London and his appointment at Saint Thomas's.
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Speaker 1: One morning, the tramp docked at Alexandria, and from the
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Speaker 1: deck he looked at the city, white in in the sunlight,
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Speaker 1: and the crowd on the wharf. He saw the natives
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Speaker 1: in their shabby gabardines, the blacks from the Soudan, the
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Speaker 1: noisy throng of Greeks and Italians, the grave Turks and tarbushes,
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Speaker 1: the sunshine and the blue sky, and something happened to
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Speaker 1: him he could not describe it. It was like a thunderclap,
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Speaker 1: he said, and then, dissatisfied with this, he said, it
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Speaker 1: was like a revelation. Something seemed to twist his heart,
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Speaker 1: and suddenly he felt an exultation, a sense of wonderful freedom.
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Speaker 1: He felt himself at home, and he made up his
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Speaker 1: mind there and then in a minute that he would
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Speaker 1: live the rest of his life in Alexandria. He had
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Speaker 1: no great difficulty in leaving the ship, and in twenty
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Speaker 1: four hours, with all his belongings, he was on shore.
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Speaker 1: The captain must have thought you as mad as a hatter.
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Speaker 1: I smiled. I didn't care what anybody thought. It wasn't
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Speaker 1: I that acted, but something stronger within me. I thought
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Speaker 1: I would go to a little Greek hotel. While I
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Speaker 1: looked about, and I felt I knew where to find one,
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Speaker 1: and you know, I walked straight there, and when I
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Speaker 1: saw it, I recognized it at once. Had you been
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Speaker 1: to Alexandria before? No, I had never been out of
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Speaker 1: England in my life. Presently he entered the government service,
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Speaker 1: and there he had been ever since. Have you never
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Speaker 1: regretted it? Never, not for a minute. I earned just
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Speaker 1: enough to live upon and I'm satisfied, I asked nothing
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Speaker 1: more than to remain as I am till I die.
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Speaker 1: I've had a wonderful life. I left Alexandria next day,
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Speaker 1: and I forgot about Abraham till a little while ago.
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Speaker 1: When I was dining with another old friend in the profession,
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Speaker 1: Alec Carmichael, who was in England on short leave. I
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Speaker 1: ran across him in the street and congratulated him on
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Speaker 1: the knighthood with which his eminent services during the war
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Speaker 1: had been rewarded. We arranged to spend an evening together
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Speaker 1: for old time's sake, and when I agreed to dine
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Speaker 1: with him, he proposed that he should act asked nobody else,
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Speaker 1: so that we could chat without interruption. He had a
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Speaker 1: beautiful old house in Queen Anne Street, and being a
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Speaker 1: man of taste, he had purnished it admirably. On the
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Speaker 1: walls of the dining room, I saw a charming ballatto,
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Speaker 1: and there was a pair of zophanies that I envied.
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Speaker 1: When his wife, a tall, lovely creature in cloth of gold,
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Speaker 1: had left us, I remarked laughingly on the change in
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Speaker 1: his present circumstances from those when we had both been
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Speaker 1: medical students. We had looked upon it then as an
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Speaker 1: extravagance to dine in a shabby Italian restaurant in the
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Speaker 1: Westminster Bridge Road. Now, Alec Carmichael was on the staff
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Speaker 1: of half a dozen hospitals. I should think he earned
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Speaker 1: ten thousand a year, and his knighthood was but the
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Speaker 1: first of the honors which must inevitably fall to his lot.
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Speaker 1: I've done pretty well, he said, But the strange thing
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Speaker 1: is that I owe it all to one piece of luck.
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Speaker 1: What do you mean by that? Well? Do you remember?
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Speaker 1: For Abraham? He was the man who had the future
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Speaker 1: when we were students. He beat me all along the line.
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Speaker 1: He got the prizes and the scholarships that I went
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Speaker 1: in for. I always played second fiddle to him. If
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Speaker 1: he'd kept on, he'd be in the position I'm in now.
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Speaker 1: That man had a genius for surgery. No one had
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Speaker 1: a look in with him. When he was appointed registrar
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Speaker 1: at Thomas's. I hadn't a chance of getting on the staff.
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Speaker 1: I should have had to become a g P. And
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Speaker 1: you know what likelihood there is for a g P
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Speaker 1: ever to get out of the common rut. But Abraham
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Speaker 1: fell out and I got the job that gave me
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Speaker 1: my opportunity. I dare say that's true. It was just luck.
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Speaker 1: I suppose there was some kink in Abraham, poor devil.
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Speaker 1: He's gone to the dogs altogether. He's got some twopenny
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Speaker 1: halfpenny job in the medical at Alexandria, sanitary officer or
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Speaker 1: something like that. I'm told he lives with an ugly
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Speaker 1: old Greek woman and has half a dozen scrawfulds. The
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Speaker 1: fact is, I suppose that it's not enough to have brains,
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Speaker 1: the thing that counts as character. Abraham hadn't got character. Character.
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Speaker 1: I should have thought it needed a good deal of
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Speaker 1: character to throw up a career after half an hour's meditation,
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Speaker 1: because you saw in another way of living a more
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Speaker 1: intense significance, and it required still more character. Never to
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Speaker 1: regret the sudden step, But I said nothing, and Alec
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Speaker 1: Carmichael proceeded reflectively. Of course, it would be hypocritical for
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Speaker 1: me to pretend that I regret what Abraham did. After all,
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Speaker 1: I've scored by it. He puffed luxuriously at the long
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Speaker 1: corona he was smoking. But if I weren't personally concerned,
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Speaker 1: I should be sorry at the waste. It seems a
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Speaker 1: rotten thing, that a man should make such a hash
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Speaker 1: of life. I wondered if Abraham really had made a
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Speaker 1: hash of life? Is to do what you most want
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Speaker 1: to live under the conditions that please you, in peace
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Speaker 1: with yourself, to make a hash of life? And is
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Speaker 1: its success to be an eminent surgeon with ten thousand
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Speaker 1: a year and a beautiful wife? I suppose it depends
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Speaker 1: on what meaning you attached to life, the claim which
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Speaker 1: you acknowledged to society, and the claim of the individual.
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Speaker 1: But again I held my tongue, for who am I
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Speaker 1: to argue with a knight? So ends chapter fifty Chapter
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Speaker 1: fifty one. Tierre. When I told her this story, praised
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Speaker 1: my prudence, and for a few minutes we worked in silence,
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Speaker 1: for we were shelling peas. Then her eyes, always alert
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Speaker 1: for the affairs of her kitchen, fell on some action
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Speaker 1: of the Chinese cook, which aroused her violent disapproval. She
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Speaker 1: turned on him with a torrent of abuse. The chink
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Speaker 1: was not backward to defend himself, and a very lively
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Speaker 1: quarrel ensued. They spoke in the native language of which
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Speaker 1: I had learnt but half a dozen words, and it
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Speaker 1: sounded as though the world would shortly come to end,
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Speaker 1: but presently peace was restored, and Tierre gave the cook
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Speaker 1: a cigarette. They both smoked comfortably. Do you know it
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Speaker 1: was I who found him? His wife, said Tierre suddenly,
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Speaker 1: with a smile that spread all over her immense face.
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Speaker 1: The cook, no, Strickland, but he had one already, that
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Speaker 1: is what he said. But I told him she was
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Speaker 1: in England, and England is at the other end of
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Speaker 1: the world. True, I replied. He would come to Poppy
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Speaker 1: eighty every two or three months when he wanted paints
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Speaker 1: or tobacco or money, and then he would wander about
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Speaker 1: like a lost dog. I was sorry for him. I
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Speaker 1: had a girl here then, called Ata, to do the rooms.
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Speaker 1: She was some sort of relation of mine, and her
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Speaker 1: father and mother were dead, so I had her live
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Speaker 1: with me. Strickland used to come here now and then
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Speaker 1: to have a square meal or to play chess with
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Speaker 1: one of the boys. I noticed that she looked at
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Speaker 1: him when he came, and I asked her if she
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Speaker 1: liked him. She said she liked him well enough. You
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Speaker 1: know what these girls are, They're always pleased to go
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Speaker 1: with a white man. Was she a native, I asked, yes.
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Speaker 1: She hadn't a drop of white blood in her well.
17:10
Speaker 1: After I'd talked to her, I sent for Strickland, and
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Speaker 1: I said to him, Strickland, it's time for you to
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Speaker 1: settle down. A man of your age shouldn't go plain
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Speaker 1: about with the girls down at the front. They're bad
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Speaker 1: lots and you'll come to no good with them. You've
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Speaker 1: got no money, and you can never keep a job
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Speaker 1: for more than a month or two. No one will
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Speaker 1: employ you. Now you say you can always live in
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Speaker 1: the bush with one or other of the natives, and
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Speaker 1: they're glad to have you because you're a white man.
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Speaker 1: But it's not decent for a white man. Now listen
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Speaker 1: to me, Strickland. Tierre mingled French with English in her conversation,
17:45
Speaker 1: For she used both languages with equal facility. She spoke
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Speaker 1: them with a singing accent, which was not unpleasing. You
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Speaker 1: felt that a bird would speak in these tones if
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Speaker 1: it could speak English. Now, what do you say to
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Speaker 1: marrying Ata. She's a good girl, and she's only seventeen.
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Speaker 1: She's never been promiscuous like some of these girls. A
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Speaker 1: captain or a first mate, yes, but she's never been
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Speaker 1: touched by a native. Else. They respect. Wotou, the purser
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Speaker 1: of the Oahu, told me last journey that he hadn't
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Speaker 1: met a nicer girl in the islands. It's time she
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Speaker 1: settled down too, And besides the Captain's and the first
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Speaker 1: mates like a change now and then I don't keep
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Speaker 1: my girls too long. She has a bit of property
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Speaker 1: down by Terra Vao, just before you come to the peninsula,
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Speaker 1: and with Copra, at the price it is now, you
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Speaker 1: could live quite comfortably. There's a house, and you'd have
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Speaker 1: all the time you wanted for your painting. What do
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Speaker 1: you say to it? Tierre paused to take breath. It
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Speaker 1: was then he told me of his wife in England,
18:48
Speaker 1: My poor Strickland. I said to him. They've all got
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Speaker 1: a wife somewhere. That is generally why they come to
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Speaker 1: the islands. Ata is a sensible girl, and she doesn't
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Speaker 1: expect any ceremony before the She's a Protestant, and you
19:02
Speaker 1: know they don't look upon these things like the Catholics.
19:05
Speaker 1: Then he said, but what does Ada say to it?
19:08
Speaker 1: It appears that she has a big win for you.
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Speaker 1: I said, she's willing if you are, Shall I call her?
19:14
Speaker 1: He chuckled in a funny dry way he had, and
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Speaker 1: I called her. She knew what I was talking about,
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Speaker 1: the hussy, and I saw her out of the corner
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Speaker 1: of my eyes, listening with all her ears while she
19:25
Speaker 1: pretended to iron a blouse that she had been washing
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Speaker 1: for me. She came. She was laughing, but I could
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Speaker 1: see that she was a little shy, and Strickland looked
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Speaker 1: at her without speaking. Was she pretty, I asked, not bad?
19:38
Speaker 1: But you must have seen pictures of her. He painted
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Speaker 1: her over and over again, sometimes with a pario on
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Speaker 1: and sometimes with nothing at all. Yes, she was pretty enough,
19:49
Speaker 1: and she knew how to cook. I taught her myself.
19:53
Speaker 1: I saw Strickland was thinking of it, so I said
19:55
Speaker 1: to him, I've given her good wages, and she saved them.
19:59
Speaker 1: And the cat and the first mates she's known have
20:02
Speaker 1: given her a little something now, and then she's saved
20:05
Speaker 1: several hundred francs. He pulled his great red beard and smiled, Well, Ada,
20:11
Speaker 1: he said, do you fancy me for osband? She did
20:14
Speaker 1: not say anything, but just giggled. But I tell you,
20:18
Speaker 1: my poor Strickland, the girl has a beguine for you.
20:21
Speaker 1: I said, I shall beat you, he said, looking at her.
20:25
Speaker 1: How else should I know you loved me? She answered,
20:28
Speaker 1: Tierre broke off her narrative and addressed herself to me reflectively.
20:32
Speaker 1: My first husband, Captain Johnson, used to thrash me regularly.
20:36
Speaker 1: He was a man. He was handsome, six foot three,
20:40
Speaker 1: and when he was drunk, there was no holding him.
20:42
Speaker 1: I would be black and blue all over for days
20:45
Speaker 1: at a time. Oh, I cried when he died. I
20:48
Speaker 1: thought I should never get over it. But it wasn't
20:51
Speaker 1: till I married George Rainey that I knew what i'd lost.
20:54
Speaker 1: You can never tell what a man is like till
20:56
Speaker 1: you live with him. I've never been so deceived in
20:59
Speaker 1: a man as I was in George Rainey. He was
21:02
Speaker 1: a fine upstanding fellow too. He was nearly as tall
21:06
Speaker 1: as Captain Johnson, and he looked strong enough, but it
21:09
Speaker 1: was all on the surface. He never drank, he never
21:12
Speaker 1: raised his hand to me. He might have been a missionary.
21:15
Speaker 1: I made love with the officers of every ship that
21:17
Speaker 1: touched the island, and George RANI never saw anything. At last,
21:22
Speaker 1: I was disgusted with him, and I got a divorce.
21:25
Speaker 1: What was the good of a husband like that? It's
21:27
Speaker 1: a terrible thing, the way some men treat women. I
21:30
Speaker 1: condoled with Tierre and remarked feelingly that men were deceivers. Ever,
21:35
Speaker 1: then asked her to go on about her story of Strickland. Well,
21:39
Speaker 1: I said to him, there's no hurry about it. Take
21:42
Speaker 1: your time and think it over. Ada has a very
21:45
Speaker 1: nice room in the annex. Live with her for a
21:47
Speaker 1: month and see how you like her. You can have
21:50
Speaker 1: your meals here, and at the end of a month,
21:52
Speaker 1: if you decide you want to marry her, you can
21:54
Speaker 1: just go and settle down on her property. Well he
21:58
Speaker 1: agreed to that. Ada continued to do the housework, and
22:01
Speaker 1: I gave him his meals as I said I would.
22:03
Speaker 1: I taught Ada to make one or two dishes I
22:06
Speaker 1: knew he was fond of. He did not paint much.
22:09
Speaker 1: He wandered about the hills and bathed in the stream,
22:12
Speaker 1: and he sat about the front looking at the lagoon,
22:15
Speaker 1: and at sunset he would go down and look at Moria.
22:19
Speaker 1: He used to go fishing on the reef. He loved
22:21
Speaker 1: to moon about the harbor, talking to the natives. He
22:25
Speaker 1: was a nice, quiet fellow, and every evening after dinner
22:28
Speaker 1: he would go down to the annex with Ata. I
22:31
Speaker 1: saw he was longing to get away to the bush.
22:33
Speaker 1: And at the end of the month I asked him
22:35
Speaker 1: what he intended to do. He said, if Ata was
22:38
Speaker 1: willing to go, he was willing to go with her.
22:41
Speaker 1: So I gave them a wedding dinner. I cooked it
22:44
Speaker 1: with my own hands. I gave them a pea soup
22:47
Speaker 1: and a lobster, a la porchi geze, and a curry
22:50
Speaker 1: and a cocoa nut salad. You've never had one of
22:53
Speaker 1: my cocoanut salads, have you. I must make one for
22:56
Speaker 1: you before you go. And then I made them an ice.
22:59
Speaker 1: We had all the champagne we could drink, and liqueurs
23:03
Speaker 1: to follow. Oh. I'd made up my mind to do
23:05
Speaker 1: things well. And afterwards we danced in the drawing room.
23:09
Speaker 1: I was not so fat then, and I always loved dancing.
23:13
Speaker 1: The drawing room at the Hotel de Lafleur was a
23:16
Speaker 1: small room with a cottage piano and a suite of
23:19
Speaker 1: mahogany furniture covered in stamped velvet. Neatly arranged around the walls.
23:25
Speaker 1: On round tables were photograph albums, and on the walls
23:28
Speaker 1: enlarged photographs of Tierre and her first husband, Captain Johnson, still,
23:34
Speaker 1: though Tierre was old and fat. On occasion we rolled
23:37
Speaker 1: back the Brussels carpet, brought in the maids and one
23:40
Speaker 1: or two friends of Tierre's, and danced, though now to
23:44
Speaker 1: the wheezy music of a gramophone on the verandah. The
23:48
Speaker 1: air was scented with the heavy perfume of the Tierre,
23:51
Speaker 1: and overhead the Southern Cross shone in a cloudless sky.
23:55
Speaker 1: Tierre smiled indulgently as she remembered the gaiety of a
23:59
Speaker 1: time long past. We kept it up till three, and
24:03
Speaker 1: when we went to bed, I don't think anyone was
24:05
Speaker 1: very sober. I had told them they could have my
24:08
Speaker 1: trap to take them as far as the road went,
24:11
Speaker 1: because after that they had a long walk. Ada's property
24:15
Speaker 1: was right away in a fold of the mountain. They
24:18
Speaker 1: started at dawn, and the boy I sent with them
24:20
Speaker 1: didn't come back till the next day. Yes, that's how
24:24
Speaker 1: Strickland was married. So ends chapter fifty one.