THE FALL OF EDWARD

BARNARD
By Somerset Maugham
PART ONE
  TAHITI
For a fortnight, on the boat that was bringing him Edward lives here.
from Tahiti to San Francisco, Bateman Hunter had
been thinking of the story he had to tell. In a few
hours now, he would be in Chicago but he was not
sure he had done everything that was possible. He was
sorry for Isabel because of the bad news he was
carrying, and very angry when he thought of Edward
Barnard. At last the train arrived in Chicago and he
felt at home. He was glad he had been born in the Bateman is returning after
most important city in the United States. his visit to Edward

In his room, he made a phone call. Isabel invited

him to dinner and rang off.
After dinner, they sat in front of the fire and she
started; “Now, what do you have to say to me?”
“I hardly know where to begin”.
“Is Edward Barnard coming back?”
“No”.
CHICAGO.
There was a long silence, filled with many Isabel lives here.
thoughts, before Bateman spoke again.
 Isabel is a rich girl

It had all begun long before when he and Barnard, still

students at college, had met Isabel at the tea party given
to introduce her to society. Both of them fell desperately
engaged In love
in love with her, but Bateman saw quickly that she had
eyes only for Edward so he resigned himself to the role friends
of confidant. In six months, Edward and Isabel were
engaged. But they were young and Isabel’s father
decided that they shouldn’t get married until Edward
graduated. Then, an accident happened. A great bank Edward is a rich student.
failed and Barnard’s father found himself a ruined man.
He told his wife he was penniless and shot himself.

friends
broke

Bateman is a rich young man

and a friend of Edward’s
 A week later, Edward Barnard went to Isabel.
“How can I ask you to marry me? Your father would
never let you do it. I don’t have a cent”.
“What do I care? I love you.”
He told her his plans. He had to earn money at once and
George Braunschmidt, an old friend of his family’s, had
offered to take him into his own business as a merchant in
the many agencies he had on many islands of the Pacific.
He had suggested that Edward should go to Tahiti for a
year or two, learn the details of that trade and come back
Edward goes to Tahiti
for a position in Chicago. It was a wonderful opportunity
and Isabel was once more all smiles.
On his last evening, Mr. Longstaffe, Isabel’s father, took
him into the smoking room and Edward saw that he was
embarrassed.
“I guess you have heard of Arnold Jackson”, he said: “he
is Mrs. Longstaffe’s brother. He left the country as soon as
he was able to. We understand he lives in Tahiti. My advice
to you is to keep away from him but if you do hear
anything about him. Anyway, we will be very glad if you
let us know”.
“Sure”.
Arnold Jackson was the black sheep of the family. He had to work at Braunschmidt Company
been a wealthy banker, a man respected by all, but one day
he was arrested on a charge of fraud and sent to prison for
seven years.
Edward went to Tahiti. At first Edward’s letters to Isabel Arnold Jackson lives in Tahiti, too
were full of his desire to get back to Chicago. He was
enthusiastic about introducing American methods into that
corner of the world.
The second year passed. And it seemed a little strange
that Edward did not speak of coming back.
 The second year passed. And it seemed a little Why do you think Edward did not speak about coming
strange that Edward did not speak of coming back. back?
Isabel was not quite sure that Edward was the same
she had known. One afternoon, she said to
Bateman:
“Has Edward told you when he was coming back?”
She noticed that something worried him.
“The fact is”, he said at last, “I have heard that
Edward is no longer working for Braunschmidt and
Co. He left them nearly a year ago. He was fired”.
Then Bateman had an idea. His firm was planning
to establish an agency in Honolulu. He himself
would go to Hawaii and return by Tahiti so that he
could see Edward.

It was from this journey that Bateman

Hunter had now returned.
PART TWO
Once in Tahiti, he went straight to the premises of
Braunschmidt and Co and he was told that Edward Barnard, Bateman met Edward in Tahiti
known here as Mr. Arnold Jackson’s nephew, was working at
Cameron’s
Bateman walked to the address indicated and was shocked to
find Edward doing a very humble job.
“Bateman! I’m delighted to see you.
“I didn’t expect to find you selling cotton to a native,
“Bateman laughed.
Bateman was surprised
“I guess not. I am quite satisfied with that”.
“You wouldn’t have been satisfied with that two years ago.”
“We grow wiser as we grow older,” retorted Edward
cheerfully.
Edward was anxious to hear all the news of Chicago. But the
strange thing was that his interest seemed equally divided among a
multitude of subjects. He did not show any special interest in
Isabel.
At the hotel, Edward introduced a tall thin man with curly
white hair to Bateman.
“This is Mr. Arnold Jackson,” said Edward. Bateman turned
white.
“I don’t see how any decent man can have anything to do
with him,” Bateman finally said. “Do you see much of him, to see Edward’s job
Edward?”
“Yes, quite a lot. He has adopted me as his nephew. He has
taught me everything I know”.
“What has he taught you?” cried Bateman in amazement. To meet Arnold Jackson
“How to live”.
 Jackson had invited them to dinner so that evening, at Arnold Jackson’s house on a little hill, they were met by a
tall handsome native woman, no longer young.
A table was laid for dinner. Jackson led Bateman to a long low window. Below them, coconut trees grew on a steep
slope going down to the lagoon. Near a stream at a little distance, Bateman could see the huts of a little village. Further
on stretched the vast calmness of the Pacific. It was all so lovely that Bateman stood abashed. A lovely girl appeared.
She had dark, splendid eyes; her skin was brown and her curling hair was coal-black. She was Jackson’s daughter.
The whole party sat down to dinner and when it came to an end, the three men sat on the veranda and Arnold
Jackson began to talk. His voice was rich and musical. He talked of the natives and of the old legends of the country.
There was some magic in the man’s words which possessed Bateman, and he sat enhanced.
Finally, the two old friends were left alone.
“When are you coming back to Chicago?” Bateman asked suddenly.
“I don’t know. Perhaps never. I am very happy here.”
“Edward, this life is not for you. Come away at once, before it is too late; come with me tomorrow. It was a mistake
that you ever came to this place”.
“When I saw you this morning, Bateman,” Edward said, “it seemed to me that I saw myself as I was two years ago.
The same determination. I went about the place and everywhere, I saw possibilities for development and enterprise. I
saw a great American city with ten-storey buildings and street-cars and a stock-exchange. Little by little, I came to like
the life here with its leisure and the people with their happy smiling faces. I began to think. I had never had time to do
that before. And gradually all the life that had seemed so important to me began to seem rather trivial and vulgar. I think
of Chicago now and I see a dark, grey city, all stone – it is like a prison. I never knew I had a soul till I found it here. If I
had remained a rich man, I might have lost it for good and all. I shall never come back to Chicago, Bateman.”

 “And what about Isabel?”
“I admire her more than any woman I have ever known. I respect her energy. She was born to make a success of
life. I am entirely unworthy of her. You must tell her, Bateman, that I am not only poor; I am content to be poor”.
“Do you mean to say that you are content to waste your life here? It seems terrible that you are content to be no
more than a salesman in a cheap store.”
“Oh, I am only doing that for the present. I have another plan in my head. Arnold Jackson has a small island
about a thousand miles from here. He has planted coconuts there. He has offered to give it to me because if Isabel
releases me, I shall marry his daughter.”
“You? You can’t marry a half-caste. You can’t be so crazy as that”
“She is a good girl. I think she loves me for myself and not for what I may become. Don’t be sorry for me, old
friend,” said Edward, “I haven’t failed. I have succeeded. When I am an old man, I will be able to look back on a
happy, simple life.”
Bateman finished telling Isabel his long story.
“I did not break our engagement with
Edward because I hoped that the thought that I
loved him could enable him to achieve success.
I have done all I could. Poor Edward… there
was something lacking in him.”
“Isabel, you know I wanted to marry you the
very first day I saw you, “Bateman cried
passionately.
“Then why on earth didn’t you ask me?”
she replied.
And as he held her in his arms, he had a
vision of the work of the Hunter Automobile
company growing in size and importance and
of the millions of cars they would produce. And
she sighed with happiness for the thought of the
exquisite house she would have, full of antique
furniture and the dinners to which only the
most cultured people would come.