The Methods of Maigret ( PDFDrive )

“What about?”
“I know perfectly well that you’ve been disappointed. But it isn’t my fault.
Thanks to you, I spent the happiest years of my life in the san. I didn’t have
anything to worry about. There was a doctor rather like you who was extremely
kind to me. He brought me books. I used to read all day. Before going there I
was ignorant. Then, when there was something I couldn’t understand, he would
explain it to me. Have you a cigarette? Never mind. Besides, it’s better for me
not to smoke…
“I stayed five years at the san. and I had come to believe I’d spend my whole
life there. I liked the idea. Unlike the others, I had no desire to get out.
“When they told me I was cured and could go, I can tell you I was more afraid
than glad. From where we were we could see the valley almost covered with a
kind of mist, sometimes with thick clouds, and I was afraid of going down into it
again. I would have liked to have stayed as a nurse, but I hadn’t the necessary
experience and I wasn’t strong enough to do the housework or be a kitchenmaid.
“What could I do down there? I had got into the habit of having three meals a
day. I knew that with Justine I should have that.”
“Why did you come today?” asked Maigret in a rather cold voice.
“Haven’t I just told you? I first went to Hyères. I didn’t want poor Marcel to
be buried without anyone to follow the hearse.”
“Were you still in love with him?”
She showed slight embarrassment.
“I think I really was in love with him, you know. I talked about him a lot to
you in the old days, when you took me up after his arrest. He wasn’t a bad man,
you know. Underneath he was really rather innocent, even shy. And just because
he was shy he wanted to be like the others. Only he exaggerated. Up there I
understood everything.”
“And you stopped loving him?”
“I didn’t love him any more in the same way. I saw other people. I could
make comparisons. The doctor helped me to understand.”
“Were you in love with the doctor?”
She laughed a little nervously.
“I think in a sanatorium people are always more or less in love with their
doctors.”
“Did Marcel write?”
“Now and then.”