SUMMER MOONSHINE

'It may interest you to know that I have had another letter from Adrian. You had better read it.'

'No, please. I don't read other people's letters.'

'Read it.'

'Well, if you insist.'

He took the letter and glanced through it. He looked up. His face was expressionless.

'So what?'

'You see what he says. He wants me to marry him.'

'You're going to marry me.'

'You? You're just a clown.'

'Perhaps. But if you imagine that I am not sincere when I tell you I love you, you're making a mistake.'

'Adrian's sincere.'

'Adrian,' said Joe, 'is a worm and a rotter, and I shouldn't think he knows what sincerity means.'

There was a silence.

'After that,' said Jane, 'perhaps you will give me back that letter. I don't want to hear any more. And' - her voice shook - I don't want to speak to you again.'

Joe smiled a twisted smile.

'I thought you were going to say that,' he said. 'Well, you won't have the chance. I'm leaving.'

'Leaving?'

'In half an hour.'

Something seemed to stab at Jane's heart.

'Leaving?'

'I must, I'm afraid. I have a living to earn.'

Jane was staring.

An aching sense of desolation was gripping Jane.

'Oh, Joe!'

Their eyes met. She gave a cry as his hand came out and gripped her arm.

'Jane... You never get a second chance. It was a miracle, our meeting. If we throw it away, there won't be another. Will you come, Jane?'

'I can't, Joe.'

'You must.'

'I can't, I can't. How can I let Adrian down?'

'Do you seriously mean that you're going back to that worm?'

'He's not a worm.'

'He is, and you know it.'

'I know this. He needs me.'

'Oh, my God! Needs you!'

'He does. You read that letter. Can't you see how impossible it is for me to throw him over after that? I know Adrian. He's weak. Helpless. He relies on me. If I let him down, he would just go to bits. I've felt it all the time. He's like that. You're different. You're tough. You can stand on your own feet. You could get on without me. I can't break promises.'

'Oh, for God's sake!'

'It's no use blustering, Joe. That's the trouble with you. You come roaring into people's lives and wanting to snatch them up and you think that's all there is to it. I can't go through the rest of my life hating and despising myself. If I let Adrian down, I should feel as if I had deserted a puppy with a broken paw.'

'This is absolute insanity.'

'It's how I feel, now I've read his letter.'

'I believe you're still in love with him.'

'No. I don't think so. And yet I may be. There are little things about him, little things he does, the way he looks sometimes - Oh, you must know what it's like when someone has once got under your skin. It must have happened to you. There must be some woman before you met me whom you can never really get out of your thoughts.'

'There was one in San Francisco.'

'Well, there you are. However long you live, you will always remember her.'

'You bet I will. Talk about getting under the skin!'

'You make a joke of everything.'

(From P. G. Wodehouse: SUMMER MOONSHINE, Arrow Books.)

Kishalay Sinha কিশলয় সিনহা किशलय सिन्हा जी [G]