The Moon and Sixpence

uzzled by the contradictions that I saw in her behaviour. She was very unhappy, but to excite my sympathy she was able to make a show of her unhappiness. It was evident that she

e suspicion that the anguish of love contemned was alloyed in her broken heart with the pangs, sordid to my young mind, of wounded vanity. I had not yet learnt

friend bringing back the errant husband to his forgiving wife. I made up my mind to see Strickland the following evening, for I felt instinctively that the hour must be chosen with delicacy.

had never heard of it. I had understood from Mrs. Strickland that it was a large and sumptuous place at the back of the Rue de Rivoli. We looked it ou

hat's not i

see. Next day about six o'clock I took a cab to the Rue des Moines, but dismissed it at the corner, since I preferred to walk to the hotel and look at it before I went in. It was a street of small shops subservient to the needs of poor people, and about the middle of it, on the left as I walked down, was the Hotel des Belges. My own hotel was modest enough, but it was magnificent in comparison with this. It was a tall, shabby building, that cannot have been p

ithin which were a desk and a couple of chairs. There was a bench outside, on which it might be presumed the night porter passed uneasy nights. There was no one about, but under

made my enquiry as

nd live here by an

y-two. On the

that for a moment

he

ked at a board

his key. Go up

well to put on

me es

eur es

ressing-gown, with touzled hair, opened a door and looked at me silently as I passed. At length I reached the sixth floor, and knocked at the door numbered t

I tried my best to a

I had the pleasure of di

erily. "I'm delighted

red eiderdown, and there was a large wardrobe, a round table, a very small washstand, and two stuffed chairs covered with red rep. Everything was dirty and shabby. There was no

do for you

not shaved for several days. When last I saw him he was spruce enough, but he looked ill at ease: now, unt

ee you on behal

drink before dinner. You'd bette

n dri

on,

er hat much in n

ether. You owe me

y. Are yo

had got in that importan

spoken to a soul for three days.

y, or was his infatuation passed? It seemed hardly likely if, as appeared, he had been taking steps for a year to make h