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Rh “Didn’t you think of getting a divorce from her?”

“I wanted very often to do so, sir, but I never said anything to her about it.”

“Why?”

“Because, sir, I was weak, and she had once said to me that she would die if ever I divorced her.”

“Did your wife love you?”

“No, sir.”

“Then why did she say such a thing?”

“I think it was because she realised that she must live … her parent’s home had been ruined by her brother, and she knew that no decent man would ever marry the former wife of a strolling juggler. Besides, she suffered from some extreme weakness of the legs, which made it impossible for her to do any hard work.”

“Tell me something of the physical relations that existed between you and your wife.”

“Perhaps they were not very different from that of any other ordinary man and woman, sir.”

“Wasn’t your wife at all sympathetic towards you?”

“No, I don’t think she felt any sympathy towards me at all. I think that it must have caused her quite a lot of pain to have to live with me. But the way she endeavoured to bear it was beyond anyone’s imagination. She watched my collapsing life with indifferent eyes, and with a cruel alertness she coldly watched me struggling to live my life as best as I could.”

“Why couldn’t you take some acctiveactive [sic] attitude