The Essential W. Somerset Maugham Collection. W. Somerset Maugham

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СКАЧАТЬ I was foolish and fanciful, but I knew better."

      "I must have caused you very great unhappiness?"

      Mary did not answer, and James looked at her with pity and remorse. At last he broke out passionately:

      "I can't command my love! It's not a thing I have at my beck and call. If it were, do you think I should give you this pain? Love is outside all calculation. You think love can be tamed, and led about on a chain like a dog. You think it's a gentle sentiment that one can subject to considerations of propriety and decorum, and God knows what. Oh, you don't know! Love is a madness that seizes one and shakes one like a leaf in the wind. I can't counterfeit love; I can't pretend to have it. I can't command the nerves of my body."

      "Do you think I don't know what love is, James? How little you know me."

      James sank on a chair and hid his face.

      "We none of us understand one another. We're all alike, and yet so different. I don't even know myself. Don't think I'm a prig when I say that I've tried with all my might to love you. I would have given worlds to feel as I felt five years ago. But I can't. God help me!... Oh, you must hate and despise me, Mary!"

      "I, my dear?" she shook her head sadly. "I shall never do that. I want you to speak frankly. It is much better that we should try to understand one another."

      "That is what I felt. I did not think it honest to marry you with a lie in my heart. I don't know whether we can ever be happy; but our only chance is to speak the whole truth."

      Mary looked helplessly at him, cowed by her grief.

      "I knew it was coming. Every day I dreaded it."

      The pain in her eyes was more than James could bear; it was cruel to make her suffer so much. He could not do it. He felt an intense pity, and the idea came to him that there might be a middle way, which would lessen the difficulty. He hesitated a moment, and then, looking down, spoke in a low voice:

      "I am anxious to do my duty, Mary. I have promised to marry you. I do not wish to break my word. I don't ask you to release me. Will you take what I can offer? I will be a good husband to you. I will do all I can to make you happy. I can give you affection and confidence--friendship; but I can't give you love. It is much better that I should tell you than that you should find out painfully by yourself--perhaps when it is too late."

      "You came to ask me to release you. Why do you hesitate now? Do you think I shall refuse?"

      James was silent.

      "You cannot think that I will accept a compromise. Do you suppose that because I am a woman I am not made of flesh and blood? You said you wished to be frank."

      "I had not thought of the other way till just now."

      "Do you imagine that it softens the blow? How could I live with you as your wife, and yet not your wife? What are affection and esteem to me without love? You must think me a very poor creature, James, when you want to make me a sort of legal housekeeper."

      "I'm sorry. I didn't think you would look upon it as an impertinence. I didn't mean to say anything offensive. It struck me as a possible way out of the difficulty. You would, at all events, be happier than you are here."

      "It is you who despise me now!"

      "Mary!"

      "I can bear pain. It's not the first humiliation I have suffered. It is very simple, and there's no reason why we should make a fuss about it. You thought you loved me, and you asked me to marry you. I don't know whether you ever really loved me; you certainly don't now, and you wish me to release you. You know that I cannot and will not refuse."

      "I see no way out of it, Mary," he said, hoarsely. "I wish to God I did! It's frightfully cruel to you."

      "I can bear it. I don't blame you. It's not your fault. God will give me strength." Mary thought of her mother's cruel sympathy. Her parents would have to be told that James had cast her aside like a plaything he was tired of. "God will give me strength."

      "I'm so sorry, Mary," cried James, kneeling by her side. "You'll have to suffer dreadfully; and I can't think how to make it any better for you."

      "There is no way. We must tell them the whole truth, and let them say what they will."

      "Would you like me to go away from Primpton?"

      "Why?"

      "It might make it easier for you."

      "Nothing can make it easier. I can face it out. And I don't want you to run away and hide yourself as if you had done something to be ashamed of. And your people want you. Oh, Jamie, you will be as gentle with them as you can, won't you? I'm afraid it will--disappoint them very much."

      "They had set their hearts upon our marriage."

      "I'm afraid they'll feel it a good deal. But it can't be helped. Anything is better than a loveless marriage."

      James was profoundly touched that at the time of her own bitter grief, Mary could think of the pain of others.

      "I wish I had your courage, Mary. I've never seen such strength."

      "It's well that I have some qualities. I haven't the power to make you love me, and I deserve something to make up."

      "Oh, Mary, don't speak like that! I do love you! There's no one for whom I have a purer, more sincere affection. Why won't you take me with what I can offer? I promise that you will never regret it. You know exactly what I am now--weak, but anxious to do right. Why shouldn't we be married? Perhaps things may change. Who can tell what time may bring about?"

      "It's impossible. You ask me to do more than I can. And I know very well that you only make the offer out of charity. Even from you I cannot accept charity."

      "My earnest wish is to make you happy."

      "And I know you would sacrifice yourself willingly for that; but I can sacrifice myself, too. You think that if we got married love might arise; but it wouldn't. You would feel perpetually that I was a reproach to you; you would hate me."

      "I should never do that."

      "How can you tell? We are the same age now, but each year I should seem older. At forty I should be an old woman, and you would still be a young man. Only the deepest love can make that difference endurable; but the love would be all on my side--if _I_ had any then. I should probably have grown bitter and ill-humoured. Ah, no, Jamie, you know it is utterly impracticable. You know it as well as I do. Let us part altogether. I give you back your word. It is not your fault that you do not love me. I don't blame you. One gets over everything in this world eventually. All I ask you is not to trouble too much about me; I shan't die of it."

      She stretched out her hand, and he took it, his eyes all blurred, unable to speak.

      "And I thank you," she continued, "for having come to me frankly and openly, and told me everything. It is still something that you have confidence in СКАЧАТЬ