Meanwhile,my dear Connie,if you would enjoy to stay in Venice or in Switzerland till the beginning of August,I should be glad to think you were out of all this buzz of nastiness,which will have died quite away by the end of the month.
So you see,we arc deep-sea monsters,and when the lobster walks on mud,he stirs it up for everybody.We must perforce take it philosophically.The irritation,and the lack of any sympathy in any direction,of Clifford's letter,had a bad effect on Connie.But she understood it better when she received the following from Mellors:The cat is out of the bag,along with various other pussies.
You have heard that my wife Bertha came back to my unloving arms,and took up her abode in the cottage:where,to speak disrespectfully,she smelled a rat,in the shape of a little bottle of Coty.Other evidence she did not find,at least for some days,when she began to howl about the burnt photograph.She noticed the glass and the back-board in the square bedroom.
Unfortunately,on the back-board somebody had scribbled little sketches,and the initials,several times repeated:C.S.R.This,however,afforded no clue until she broke into the hut,and found one of your books,an autobiography of the actress Judith,with your name,Constance Stewart Reid,on the front page.After this,for some days she went round loudly saying that my paramour was no less a person than Lady Chatterley herself.The news came at last to the rector,Mr Burroughs,and to Sir Clifford.They then proceeded to take legal steps against my liege lady,who for her part disappeared,having always had a mortal fear of the police.
Sir Clifford asked to see me,so I went to him.He talked around things and seemed annoyed with me.Then he asked if I knew that even her ladyship's name had been mentioned.I said I never listened to scandal,and was surprised to hear this bit from Sir Clifford himself.He said,of course it was a great insult,and I told him there was Queen Mary on a calendar in the scullery,no doubt because Her Majesty formed part of my harem.But he didn't appreciate the sarca**.He as good as told me I was a disreputable character also walked about with my breeches'buttons undone,and I as good as told him he'd nothing to unbutton anyhow,so he gave me the sack,and I leave on Saturday week,and the place thereof shall know me no more.
I shall go to London,and my old landlady,Mrs Inger,17Coburg Square,will either give me a room or will find one for me.
Be sure your sins will find you out,especially if you're married and her name's Bertha--There was not a word about herself,or to her.Connie resented this.He might have said some few words of consolation or reassurance.But she knew he was leaving her free,free to go back to Wragby and to Clifford.She resented that too.He need riot be so falsely chivalrous.She wished he had said to Clifford:'Yes,she is my lover and my mistress and I am proud of it!'But his courage wouldn't carry him so far.
So her name was coupled with his in Tevershall!It was a mess.But that would soon die down.
She was angry,with the complicated and confused anger that made her inert.She did not know what to do nor what to say,so she said and did nothing.She went on at Venice just the same,rowing out in the gondola with Duncan Forbes,bathing,letting the days slip by.Duncan,who had been rather depressingly in love with her ten years ago,was in love with her again.But she said to him:'I only want one thing of men,and that is,that they should leave me alone.'
So Duncan left her alone:really quite pleased to be able to.All the same,he offered her a soft stream of a queer,inverted sort of love.He wanted to be with her.
'Have you ever thought,'he said to her one day,'how very little people are connected with one another.Look at Daniele!He is handsome as a son of the sun.But see how alone he looks in his handsomeness.Yet I bet he has a wife and family,and couldn't possibly go away from them.'
'Ask him,'said Connie.
Duncan did so.Daniele said he was married,and had two children,both male,aged seven and nine.But he betrayed no emotion over the fact.
'Perhaps only people who are capable of real togetherness have that look of being alone in the universe,'said Connie.'The others have a certain stickiness,they stick to the mass,like Giovanni.''And,'she thought to herself,'like you,Duncan.'
