第58章

We arrived at the house in which I lived.I would not ask him to come in with me, but walked up the stairs without a word.He followed me, and entered the apartment on my heels.He had not been in it before, but he never gave a glance at the room I had been at pains to make pleasing to the eye.There was a tin of tobacco on the table, and, taking out his pipe, he filled it.He sat down on the only chair that had no arms and tilted himself on the back legs.

"If you're going to make yourself at home, why don't you sit in an arm- chair?" I asked irritably.

"Why are you concerned about my comfort?""I'm not," I retorted, "but only about my own.It makes me uncomfortable to see someone sit on an uncomfortable chair."He chuckled, but did not move.He smoked on in silence, taking no further notice of me, and apparently was absorbed in thought.I wondered why he had come.

Until long habit has blunted the sensibility, there is something disconcerting to the writer in the instinct which causes him to take an interest in the singularities of human nature so absorbing that his moral sense is powerless against it.He recognises in himself an artistic satisfaction in the contemplation of evil which a little startles him; but sincerity forces him to confess that the disapproval he feels for certain actions is not nearly so strong as his curiosity in their reasons.The character of a scoundrel, logical and complete, has a fascination for his creator which is an outrage to law and order.I expect that Shakespeare devised Iago with a gusto which he never knew when, weaving moonbeams with his fancy, he imagined Desdemona.It may be that in his rogues the writer gratifies instincts deep-rooted in him, which the manners and customs of a civilised world have forced back to the mysterious recesses of the subconscious.In giving to the character of his invention flesh and bones he is giving life to that part of himself which finds no other means of expression.His satisfaction is a sense of liberation.

The writer is more concerned to know than to judge.

There was in my soul a perfectly genuine horror of Strickland, and side by side with it a cold curiosity to discover his motives.I was puzzled by him, and I was eager to see how he regarded the tragedy he had caused in the lives of people who had used him with so much kindness.I applied the scalpel boldly.

"Stroeve told me that picture you painted of his wife was the best thing you've ever done."Strickland took his pipe out of his mouth, and a smile lit up his eyes."It was great fun to do.""Why did you give it him?"

"I'd finished it.It wasn't any good to me.""Do you know that Stroeve nearly destroyed it?" "It wasn't altogether satisfactory."He was quiet for a moment or two, then he took his pipe out of his mouth again, and chuckled.

"Do you know that the little man came to see me?" "Weren't you rather touched by what he had to say?" "No; I thought it damned silly and sentimental.""I suppose it escaped your memory that you'd ruined his life?" I remarked.

He rubbed his bearded chin reflectively."He's a very bad painter.""But a very good man."

"And an excellent cook," Strickland added derisively.

His callousness was inhuman, and in my indignation I was not inclined to mince my words.

"As a mere matter of curiosity I wish you'd tell me, have you felt the smallest twinge of remorse for Blanche Stroeve's death?"I watched his face for some change of expression, but it remained impassive.

"Why should I?" he asked.

"Let me put the facts before you.You were dying, and Dirk Stroeve took you into his own house.He nursed you like a mother.He sacrificedhis time and his comfort and his money for you.He snatched you from the jaws of death."Strickland shrugged his shoulders.

"The absurd little man enjoys doing things for other people.That's his life.""Granting that you owed him no gratitude, were you obliged to go out of your way to take his wife from him? Until you came on the scene they were happy. Why couldn't you leave them alone?""What makes you think they were happy?" "It was evident.""You are a discerning fellow.Do you think she could ever have forgiven him for what he did for her?""What do you mean by that?"

"Don't you know why he married her?" I shook my head.

"She was a governess in the family of some Roman prince, and the son of the house seduced her.She thought he was going to marry her.They turned her out into the street neck and crop.She was going to have a baby, and she tried to commit suicide.Stroeve found her and married her.""It was just like him.I never knew anyone with so compassionate a heart."I had often wondered why that ill-assorted pair had married, but just that explanation had never occurred to me.That was perhaps the cause of the peculiar quality of Dirk's love for his wife.I had noticed in it something more than passion.I remembered also how I had always fancied that her reserve concealed I knew not what; but now I saw in it more than the desire to hide a shameful secret.Her tranquillity was like the sullen calm that broods over an island which has been swept by a hurricane.Her cheerfulness was the cheerfulness of despair.Strickland interrupted my reflections with an observation the profound cynicism of which startled me.

"A woman can forgive a man for the harm he does her," he said, "but she can never forgive him for the sacrifices he makes on her account.""It must be reassuring to you to know that you certainly run no risk ofincurring the resentment of the women you come in contact with," I retorted.

A slight smile broke on his lips.

"You are always prepared to sacrifice your principles for a repartee," he answered.

"What happened to the child?"

"Oh, it was still-born, three or four months after they were married." Then I came to the question which had seemed to me most puzzling."Will you tell me why you bothered about Blanche Stroeve at all?" He did not answer for so long that I nearly repeated it.

"How do I know?" he said at last."She couldn't bear the sight of me.It amused me.""I see."