"It wasall so unexpected, " she said. "We'd been married seventeen years. Isever dreamed that Charlie was the sort of man to get infatuated with anyone.We always got on very well together. Of course, I had a great many intereststhat he didn't share. "

"Have youfound out who" -- I did not quite know how to express myself -- "whothe person, who it is he's gone away with?"

"No. Noone seems to have an idea. It's so strange. Generally when a man falls in lovewith someone people see them about together, lunching or something, and herfriends always come and tell the wife. I had no warning -- nothing. His lettercame like a thunderbolt. I thought he was perfectly happy. "

She began tocry, poor thing, and I felt very sorry for her. But in a little while she grewcalmer.

"It's nogood making a fool of myself, " she said, drying her eyes. "The onlything is to decide what is the best thing to do. "

She went on,talking somewhat at random, now of the recent past, then of their first meetingand their marriage; but presently I began to form a fairly coherent picture oftheir lives; and it seemed to me that my surmises had not been incorrect. Mrs.Strickland was the daughter of an Indian civilian, who on his retirement hadsettled in the depths of the country, but it was his habit every August to takehis family to Eastbourne for change of air; and it was here, when she wastwenty, that she met Charles Strickland. He was twenty-three. They playedtogether, walked on the front together, listened together to the niggerminstrels; and she had made up her mind to accept him a week before he proposedto her. They lived in London, first in Hampstead, and then, as he grew moreprosperous, in town. Two children were born to them.

“这么突如其来，”她说，“我们结婚十六年了，我做梦也没想到查理斯是这样一个人，会迷上了什么人。我们相处得一直很好。当然了，我有许多兴趣爱好与他不同。”

“你发现没发现是什么人，”——我不知道该怎样措词——“那人是谁，同他一起走的？”

“没有。好象谁都不知道。太奇怪了。在一般情况下，男人如果同什么人有了爱情的事，总会被人看到，出去吃饭啊什么的。做妻子的总有几个朋友来把这些事告诉她。我却没有接到警告——没有任何警告。他的信对我好象是晴天霹雳。我还以为他一直生活得很幸福呢。”

她开始哭起来，可怜的女人，我很替她难过。但是没有过一会儿她又逐渐平静下来。

“不该让人家拿我当笑话看，”她擦了擦眼睛说，“唯一要做的事是从速决定到底该怎么办。”

她继续说下去，有些语无伦次；一会儿说刚过去不久的事，一会儿又说起他们初次相遇和结婚的事。但是这样一来他俩的生活在我的脑子里倒逐渐形成了一幅相当清晰的图画。我觉得我过去的臆测还是正确的，思特里克兰德太太的父亲在印度当过文职官吏，退休以后定居到英国偏远的乡间，但每年八月他总要带着一家老小到伊思特堡恩去换一换环境。她就是在那里认识了查理斯·思特里克兰德的。那一年她二十岁，思特里克兰德二十三岁。他们一起打网球，在滨海大路上散步，听黑人流浪歌手唱歌。在他正式提出以前一个星期她已经决心接受他的求婚了。他们在伦敦定居下来，开始时住在汉普斯台德区，后来他们的生活逐渐富裕起来，便搬到市区里来。他们有两个孩子。