The Romantic Lady By Michael Arlen (2019 NEW EDITION)
NOËL ANSON and I had been great friends in our first youthful days, but our lives and ambitions had led us so contrarily that we had not seen each other for more than six years when, on the night two weeksago, we happened to meet at the Club. We had both, of course, so muchto say that, as often happens, we babbled on quite inartistically, spoilingmany a good story in the gay, breathless exchange of reminiscence andexperience; from all of which, however, clearly loomed out these greatcardinal facts of our lives, that we had both married; my wife, who wasa perfect woman, I explained, I had had to leave behind in New Zealandto take care of her old father; while his wife, who was also a perfectwoman, he chivalrously insisted, had thought fit to divorce poor Noël some six months before.