human
Her husband’s in a lunatic asylum, I may tell you,
gpt
Whose?
human
The young woman’s in question.
gpt
Really!
human
Yes, my boy, Ingpen went on, quietly, with restraint, but not without a naïve and healthy pride in the sudden display of the marvellous garden.
gpt
And I didn’t meet her at a concert, or on the Grand Canal, or anything of that sort. I met her in a mill at Oldham while I was doing my job. He was the boss of the mill; I walked into an office and he was lying on the floor on the flat of his back, and she was wiping her feet on his chest. He was saying in a very anxious tone: ’You aren’t half wiping them. Harder! Harder!’ That was his little weakness, you see. He happened to be convinced that he was a doormat. She had been hiding the thing for weeks, coming with him to the works, and so on, to calm him. Ingpen spoke more quickly and excitedly:
human
I never saw a more awful thing in my life! I never saw a more awful thing in my life! And coming across it suddenly, you see.... There was something absolutely odious in him lying down like that, and her trying to soothe him in the way he wanted. You should have seen the serious expression of his face, simply bursting with anxiety for her to wipe her boots properly on him. And her face when she caught sight of me. Oh! Dreadful! Dreadful! Ingpen paused, and then continued calmly:
gpt
Of course I soon tumbled to it. For the matter of that, it didn’t want much tumbling to. He went raving mad the same afternoon. And he’s been more or less raving mad ever since.
human
What a ghastly business.... Any children?
gpt
No, thank God! Ingpen answered with fresh emotion.
human
But don’t you forget that she’s still the wife of that lunatic, and he’ll probably live for ever. She’s tied up to him just as if she was tied up to a post. Those are our Divorce Laws! Isn’t it appalling? Isn’t it inconceivable? Just think of the situation of that woman!
gpt
Awful!
human
Quite alone in the world, you know! said Ingpen.
gpt
I’m hanged if I know what she’d have done without me. She hadn’t a friend--at any rate she hadn’t a friend with a grain of sense. Astonishing how solitary some couples are! ... It aged her frightfully. She’s much younger than she looks. Happily there was a bit of money--enough in fact.