The Moon and Sixpence W. Somerset Maugham (best book club books for discussion .txt) đ
- Author: W. Somerset Maugham
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âI dare say thatâs true.â
âIt was just luck. I suppose there was some kink in Abraham. Poor devil, heâs gone to the dogs altogether. Heâs got some twopenny-halfpenny job in the medical at Alexandriaâ âsanitary officer or something like that. Iâm told he lives with an ugly old Greek woman and has half a dozen scrofulous kids. The fact is, I suppose, that itâs not enough to have brains. The thing that counts is character. Abraham hadnât got character.â
Character? I should have thought it needed a good deal of character to throw up a career after half an hourâs meditation, because you saw in another way of living a more intense significance. And it required still more character never to regret the sudden step. But I said nothing, and Alec Carmichael proceeded reflectively:
âOf course it would be hypocritical for me to pretend that I regret what Abraham did. After all, Iâve scored by it.â He puffed luxuriously at the long Corona he was smoking. âBut if I werenât personally concerned I should be sorry at the waste. It seems a rotten thing that a man should make such a hash of life.â
I wondered if Abraham really had made a hash of life. Is to do what you most want, to live under the conditions that please you, in peace with yourself, to make a hash of life; and is it success to be an eminent surgeon with ten thousand a year and a beautiful wife? I suppose it depends on what meaning you attach to life, the claim which you acknowledge to society, and the claim of the individual. But again I held my tongue, for who am I to argue with a knight?
LITiaré, when I told her this story, praised my prudence, and for a few minutes we worked in silence, for we were shelling peas. Then her eyes, always alert for the affairs of her kitchen, fell on some action of the Chinese cook which aroused her violent disapproval. She turned on him with a torrent of abuse. The Chink was not backward to defend himself, and a very lively quarrel ensued. They spoke in the native language, of which I had learnt but half a dozen words, and it sounded as though the world would shortly come to an end; but presently peace was restored and Tiaré gave the cook a cigarette. They both smoked comfortably.
âDo you know, it was I who found him his wife?â said TiarĂ© suddenly, with a smile that spread all over her immense face.
âThe cook?â
âNo, Strickland.â
âBut he had one already.â
âThat is what he said, but I told him she was in England, and England is at the other end of the world.â
âTrue,â I replied.
âHe would come to Papeete every two or three months, when he wanted paints or tobacco or money, and then he would wander about like a lost dog. I was sorry for him. I had a girl here then called Ata to do the rooms; she was some sort of a relation of mine, and her father and mother were dead, so I had her to live with me. Strickland used to come here now and then to have a square meal or to play chess with one of the boys. I noticed that she looked at him when he came, and I asked her if she liked him. She said she liked him well enough. You know what these girls are; theyâre always pleased to go with a white man.â
âWas she a native?â I asked.
âYes; she hadnât a drop of white blood in her. Well, after Iâd talked to her I sent for Strickland, and I said to him: âStrickland, itâs time for you to settle down. A man of your age shouldnât go playing about with the girls down at the front. Theyâre bad lots, and youâll come to no good with them. Youâve got no money, and you can never keep a job for more than a month or two. No one will employ you now. You say you can always live in the bush with one or other of the natives, and theyâre glad to have you because youâre a white man, but itâs not decent for a white man. Now, listen to me, Strickland.âââ
Tiaré mingled French with English in her conversation, for she used both languages with equal facility. She spoke them with a singing accent which was not unpleasing. You felt that a bird would speak in these tones if it could speak English.
âââNow, what do you say to marrying Ata? Sheâs a good girl and sheâs only seventeen. Sheâs never been promiscuous like some of these girlsâ âa captain or a first mate, yes, but sheâs never been touched by a native. Elle se respecte, vois-tu. The purser of the Oahu told me last journey that he hadnât met a nicer girl in the islands. Itâs time she settled down too, and besides, the captains and the first mates like a change now and then. I donât keep my girls too long. She has a bit of property down by Taravao, just before you come to the peninsula, and with copra at the price it is now you could live quite comfortably. Thereâs a house, and youâd have all the time you wanted for your painting. What do you say to it?â
Tiaré paused to take breath.
âIt was then he told me of his wife in England. âMy poor Strickland,â I said to him, âtheyâve all got a wife somewhere; that is generally why they come to the islands. Ata is a sensible girl, and she doesnât
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