OU_214051 UNIVERSA - Osmania University

3M
MAINLY MAIGRET
What was he doing? He was trying to understand! All the people
were in their places, with their own particular mentalities and their
own particular preoccupations.
But from then on there was no way of guessing. There was
nothing but a blank. The inspector could only review the evidence.
" It was by about the third day that Captain Fallut and the
operator had come to regard each other as enemies. They both kept
revolvers in their pockets. They seemed to be afraid of each
other...."
And yet Le Clinche had not yet become Adele's lover!
" From then onwards, the captain acted like a madman...."
They were out in the Atlantic now, off the route of steamers.
They only very occasionally met other trawlers, English or German,
on their way to their fishing-grounds.
Was Ad&le getting impatient and complaining about her life of
confinement?
"... like a madman. . . ."
Everyone was agreed on that word! And it would seem as if
Adele weren't sufficient to produce such a state of mind in a man
as balanced as Fallut, a man who all his life had worshipped
orderliness.
She hadn't been unfaithful to him! He had let her have two or
three airings on the bridge at night, taking all manner of precautions.
Then why was he like a madman} . ..
The evidence continued:
"... He gave orders to anchor the boat where no cod had ever
been caught within living memory. . . ."
And he wasn't a nervous or a fiery or hasty man! He was a
meticulous petit bourgeois who had once dreamed of uniting himself
with his landlady, Madame Bernard, and ending his days in the
house in the Rue d'Etretat with its lace curtains.
"... Accidents went on happening. ... When they finally
reached the Bank and found some fish, it was salted in such a way
that it was considerably damaged by the time they got back."
Fallut was no beginner. He was due to retire! No one had ever
had anything against him before.
He always ate in his cabin.
"... He sulked with me ..." Adele had said. " He'd let days
and weeks go past without saying a word to me. Then suddenly
it would get hold of him again...."
A wave of sensuality! She was there, in his room I Sharing his