CHAPTER SIXTEEN

When the sisters arrived in Venice, a gondolier took them to their hotel. It was a beautiful, sunny day. On the way, he asked the ladies if they would like him to be their gondolier for the week. They thought about it and, finally, agreed. Connie gave him her card so that he would know whom to ask for at the hotel.

The man who had invited the sisters was Sir Alexander, from Scotland. He was a rich married man, who still liked to have his fun with other ladies. His wife accepted all of this as best as she could, but it was clear that she was happy his recent illness had taken a little of his health away from him. Now he had to spend more of his time at home.

Most of the people staying in the hotel were pretty boring, and their father often spent his days painting somewhere among the islands. So, the sisters went out most of the time, and, at night, they participated in the many parties that took place along the little Venetian canals. Connie thought it was all just too much: the dancing, the eating, the money, and the people. It was all like taking a drug.

The sisters found that there were plenty of people in Venice that they knew. Michaelis was there, and he, of course, was eager to spend some time with Connie. She found that the time she liked best, was when she and her sister would ride out to a far island and swim alone, away from all of the "enjoyment" of the city. She would lie back in the water and enjoy the quiet and the feeling of being healthy and pregnant, for she now knew for certain that she was carrying the gamekeeper's baby inside of her.

Then, one day, she received a letter from Clifford. In it, he reported that Mrs Bolton had told him some interesting news. It seemed that the gamekeeper's wife had come back to him one day. After he would not let her in, she broke one of his windows and refused to leave. The gamekeeper then, himself, left and went to his mother's home in Tevershall.

Clifford made it all seem like a funny joke, but Connie felt terrible for the gamekeeper. She decided to write to Mrs Bolton in order to get more information. Mrs Bolton very quickly wrote back to her, saying that once Bertha Coutts had heard about her husband's plan to divorce her, she came running to his home to refuse the divorce. She would not leave his house until he forced her to, by shutting-off the water. Now, however, she was running about the city saying terrible things about the gamekeeper, saying that he had been sleeping with lots of different women; saying she found a gold-tipped cigarette and a bottle of perfume at his home. And she was telling people that he forced her to have sex with him when she went to his home, which, of course, could not have been true.

Connie became angry with the gamekeeper for having married that woman. She also started to feel embarrassed about her relationship with him. People would soon find out that it was her that had been at his home. She even began to wish that she were no longer pregnant with his baby.

An old friend of the sisters had arrived in Venice, named Duncan Forbes. He had gone to school with them and was now an artist. The three of them spent most of their days together now. Connie told him about her situation. As she spoke, she found herself feeling different about the gamekeeper, suddenly. She was no longer angry with him. She now felt that he had done nothing at all wrong. He had only been guilty of giving her the greatest pleasure of her life. She decided to write a letter to Mrs Bolton, along with a letter for her to give to the gamekeeper. It was dangerous, but she thought it too important. In the gamekeeper's letter, Connie wrote:

I was sorry to hear about your wife coming back. I hope that you are not too upset about everything. Try to take it as easy as you can. I'll be home in about ten days. I hope everything will be OK.

Then a second letter from Clifford arrived.

Everyone misses you here. Don't feel that you have to come back on the sixteenth, if you are really enjoying yourself. There's no hurry. I'm fine. Mrs Bolton is taking very good care of me. She is also keeping me well informed about the gamekeeper's situation, which seems to be getting worse.

His wife, Bertha Coutts, has now got most of the women in Tevershall believing her story. She has told the town all of his sexual secrets. The woman has really gone too far now. She has even started to name other women she believes are having sex with her husband. Several very respectable people have been named now. It's very disgusting!

I had to talk with the gamekeeper, myself, the other day, because I feared his wife running about in my woods. He was very rude to me, I must say. He told me that he could not do anything about his wife and that "people should start fucking more, so that they wouldn't have to talk so much about other people, 'fucking'." When I asked him not to speak to me so rudely, he said, 'Just because you haven't a working cock, doesn't make it necessary for me to feel bad about the success of mine.'

After that, I simply gave him a week to collect his things and leave Wragby. He is going to train a new gamekeeper before he leaves. I must say that he isn't going to make many friends if he continues to go around speaking to people as he did to me.

I would suggest that you stay abroad until August, just so you don't have to see any of this ugliness that is going on here.

Connie found Clifford's letter cold. She could not understand how he could treat Mellors so coldly. However, she then received a letter from Mellors, himself, which explained things much more clearly.

Well, everyone knows now. My wife found a book of yours with your name written on the inside of the cover. She immediately went about town spreading words that it was you that I had been sleeping with all this time. Then your husband got involved and asked for her to be arrested for spreading such lies about respectable women. Since that time, Bertha has disappeared from Tevershall. After that, Clifford came to have a talk with me. We quarreled almost immediately. He said that I was a low person who walked around with his penis for anyone to enjoy, and I told him that he was just envious that I had a penis. Well, that was the end of it.

I'm going to London this Saturday. I'm staying at my old landlady's place at 17 Coburg Square.

His letter did not mention her once. This upset her a great deal. She did not care so much that people knew her secret. She knew that that would go away with time. She was more concerned about the gamekeeper's attitude.

She finished out her ten days in Venice, spending a good amount of time with her sister and Duncan Forbes, who had now fallen in love with her. However, when he told Connie of his feelings, she simply said: "I just want men to leave me alone." So he did as he was told.

(end of section)