Transcribed from the 1913 John Lane edition ,
THE UNBEARABLE
BASSINGTON
:: BY H. H. MUNRO(“SAKI”) ::
LONDON: JOHN LANE, THE BODLEYHEAD
NEW YORK: JOHN LANE COMPANY
TORONTO: BELL & COCKBURN. MCMXIII
SIXTH EDITION
PRINTED BYJAS. TRUSCOTT & SON, LTD. LONDON
Author’s Note
This story has no moral.
If it points out an evil at any rate it suggests noremedy.
CHAPTER I
Francesca Bassington sat in thedrawing-room of her house in Blue Street, W., regaling herselfand her estimable brother Henry with China tea and small cresssandwiches. The meal was of that elegant proportion which,while ministering sympathetically to the desires of the moment,is happily reminiscent of a satisfactory luncheon and blessedlyexpectant of an elaborate dinner to come.
In her younger days Francesca had been known as the beautifulMiss Greech; at forty, although much of the original beautyremained, she was just dear Francesca Bassington. No onewould have dreamed of calling her sweet, but a good many peoplewho scarcely knew her were punctilious about putting in the“dear.”
Her enemies, in their honester moments, would have admittedthat she was svelte and knew how to dress, but they would haveagreed with her friends in asserting that she had no soul. When one’s friends and enemies agree on any particularpoint they are usually wrong. Francesca herself, if pressedin an unguarded moment to describe her soul, would probably havedescribed her drawing-room. Not that she would haveconsidered that the one had stamped the impress of its characteron the other, so that close scrutiny might reveal its outstandingfeatures, and even suggest its hidden places, but because shemight have dimly recognised that her drawing-room was hersoul.
Francesca was one of those women towards whom Fate appears tohave the best intentions and never to carry them intopractice. With the advantages put at her disposal she mighthave been expected to command a more than average share offeminine happiness. So many of the things that make forfretfulness, disappointment and discouragement in a woman’slife were removed from her path that she might well have beenconsidered the fortunate Miss Greech, or later, lucky FrancescaBassington. And she was not of the perverse band of thosewho make a rock-garden of their souls by dragging into them allthe stoney griefs and unclaimed troubles they can find lyingaround them. Francesca loved the smooth ways and pleasantplaces of life; she liked not merely to look on the bright sideof things but to live there and stay there. And the factthat things had, at one time and another, gone badly with her andcheated her of some of her early illusions made her cling thecloser to such good fortune as remained to her now that sheseemed to have reached a calmer period of her life. Toundiscriminating friends she appeared in the guise of a ratherselfish woman, but it was merely the selfishness of one who hadseen the happy and unhappy sides of