Five Little Pigs   ::   Christie Agatha

He said: ‘You haven’t struggled much, have you, Elsa?’ And I said I hadn’t struggled at all.

He said he wished I wasn’t so young, and I said that didn’t matter. I suppose I might say that for the next few weeks we were very happy. But happiness isn’t quite the word. It was something deeper and more frightening than that.

We were made for each other and we’d found each other-and we both knew we’d got to be together always.

But something else happened, too. The unfinished picture began to haunt Amyas. He said to me: ‘Damned funny, I couldn’t paint you before-you yourself got in the way of it. But Iwant to paint you, Elsa. I want to paint you so that that picture will be the finest thing I’ve ever done. I’m itching and aching now to get at my brushes to see you sitting there on that hoary old chestnut of a battlement wall with the conventional blue sea and the decorous English trees-and you-you-sitting there like a discordant shriek of triumph.’

He said: ‘And I’ve got to paint you that way! And I can’t be fussed and bothered while I’m doing it. When the picture’s finished I’ll tell Caroline the truth and we’ll get the whole messy business cleared up.’

I said: ‘Will Caroline make a fuss about divorcing you?’

He said he didn’t think so. But you never knew with women.

I said I was sorry if she was going to be upset, but after all, I said, these things did happen.

He said: ‘Very nice and reasonable, Elsa. But Caroline isn’t reasonable, never has been reasonable, and certainly isn’t going to feel reasonable. She loves me, you know.’

I said I understood that, but if she loved him, she’d put his happiness first, and at any rate she wouldn’t want to keep him if he wanted to be free.

He said: ‘Life can’t really be solved by admirable maxims out of modern literature. Nature’s red in tooth and claw, remember.’

I said: ‘Surely we are all civilized people nowadays?’ and Amyas laughed. He said: ‘Civilized people my foot! Caroline would probably like to take a hatchet to you. She might do it too. Don’t you realize, Elsa, that she’s going to suffer-suffer? Don’t you know what suffering means?’

I said: ‘Then don’t tell her.’

He said: ‘No. The break’s got to come. You’ve got to belong to me properly, Elsa. Before all the world. Openly mine.’

I said: ‘Suppose she won’t divorce you?’

He said: ‘I’m not afraid of that.