Susan
used to pursue Arthur about with a sweater, because he had one day let
slip that a brother of his had died of pneumonia. The sight amused him,
but was not pleasant if you substituted Terence and Rachel for Arthur
and Susan; and Arthur was far less eager to get you in a corner and talk
about flying and the mechanics of aeroplanes. They would settle down.
He then looked at the couples who had been married for several years. It
was true that Mrs. Thornbury had a husband, and that for the most part
she was wonderfully successful in bringing him into the conversation,
but one could not imagine what they said to each other when they were
alone. There was the same difficulty with regard to the Elliots, except
that they probably bickered openly in private. They sometimes bickered
in public, though these disagreements were painfully covered over by
little insincerities on the part of the wife, who was afraid of public
opinion, because she was much stupider than her husband, and had to make
efforts to keep hold of him. There could be no doubt, he decided,
that it would have been far better for the world if these couples
had separated. Even the Ambroses, whom he admired and respected
profoundly--in spite of all the love between them, was not their
marriage too a compromise? She gave way to him; she spoilt him; she
arranged things for him; she who was all truth to others was not true to
her husband, was not true to her friends if they came in conflict with
her husband.
Pages:
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354