THE CREATIVE IMPULSE

(Continued)

Mrs. Forrester greeted Mrs. Bullfinch and asked her to see her master. Mrs. Bullfinch hesitated
for a second, then held the door wide open and told her to come in she turned her head and said to Albert
that there was Mrs. Forrester to see him. Mrs. Forrester went in quickly and there was Albert sitting by
the fire, leaning back in an old armchair and reading the evening paper. Albert asked cheerfully how she
was and if she was keeping well. Mrs. Bullfinch offered Mrs. Forrester a sit. Mrs. Forrester asked Albert
if she could see him alone. Albert answered negatively he said that Mrs. Bullfinch should be present. Mrs.
Forrester agreed and Albert asked what had she to say to him. Mrs. Forrester gave him her best smile and
said that she didn`t blame him for anything, she knew it wasn`t his fault and she was not angry with him,
but a joke was a joke and it should not be carried too far, she had come to take him home. Albert
answered that she was wasting her time, nothing would make him live with her again. Mrs. Forrester
asked in a deeper tone, trying not to show that her feelings were hurt, if he hadn`t been happy with her.
Albert said that they had been married for thirty-five years. It was a very long time. He said that she was
a good woman in her own way, but not suitable for him. She was literary and he was not. She was artistic
and he was not. Mrs. Forrester said that all that time, she had been doing everything in her power to
interest him in art and literature. He answered affirmatively and he could only blame himself if he hadn`t
reacted properly. He said that he didn`t like the books she wrote and he didn`t like the people who
surrounded her. He confessed that at her parties he had wanted to take off his clothes just to see what
would happen. Mrs. Forrester asked him if he wasn`t ashamed of himself, because he hadn`t gotten the
right figure for that. Albert continued that Mrs. Bullfinch wanted him to retire. He had discussed the
matter with his partners that day and they agreed to settle everything nicely, they would buy him out and
he should have an income of just under nine hundred pounds. There were three of them, so it gave them
nearly three hundred a year each. Using the last argument she could think off, Mrs. Forrester asked Mr.
Forrester how was she to live on that. He answered that she had a wonderful pen. Mrs. Forrester said that
he knew very well that her books didn`t bring her any money and the publishers complain that they lost
by them. Mrs. Bullfinch suddenly asked Mrs. Forrester why didn`t she write a good detective story. Mrs.
Forrester burst out laughing and exclaimed that it was a wild idea, she could never hope to please the
masses and she had never read a detective story in her life. Albert said that it wasn`t a bad idea at all. Mrs.
Bullfinch said that she loved a detective story, gave her a lady in evening dress, dead on the library floor
and she knew she was going to enjoy it. Albert said that he preferred a respectable gentleman with a gold
watch chain, lying dead in Hyde Park there were something particularly interesting to the reader in the
murder of a respectable gentleman. Mrs. Bullfinch agreed with Albert and said that he had known an
important secret and his murders had said they would kill him unless he had kept his mouth shut, he just
hadn`t managed to run away from them. Smiling kindly at Mrs. Forrester, Albert said that they could give
her all the advice she needed. He had read hundreds of detective stories. Mrs. Forrester was shocked, but
Albert continued and said that that was first had brought Mrs. Bullfinch and him together. He had given
to her when he had finished them. He had to say that she couldn`t find two stories that were alike there
was always a difference when you compared them. Mrs. Forrester rose to her feet and said that she
understood what a gulf separated them. Her voice shook a little and said that he had been surrounded for
thirty years with all that had been the best in English literature and all that time he had been reading
detective novels. She had come there willing to come to a reasonable agreement and take him back home,
she wished it no longer. Albert agreed with everything she said and told her to thought over the detective
story. Mrs. Forrester walked downstairs and when Mrs. Bullfinch opened the door and asked if she would
like to hire a taxi, she shook her head and said she shall take a tram. While seeing Mrs. Forrester to the
tramp stop, Mrs. Bullfinch said that she needn`t be afraid that she wouldn`t look after Mr. Forrester
properly. She said to her that she knew how to run a house and she wasn`t a bad cook, as she knew. Mrs.
Bullfinch assured Mrs. Forrester that her husband would have a hobby he was going to collect postage
stamps. Mrs. Forrester was about to say something, but just then a tram pulled up at the stop and she got
in. Wondering what time it was, she looked up at the man sitting opposite her to see whether he was the
kind of person she could ask and suddenly started; as sitting there was a respectable looking gentleman
wearing a gold watch chain. It was the very man Albert had described lying dead in Hyde Park. He asked
the conductor to stop and she saw him go down a small, dark street. Why? Ah, why? At Hyde Park corner
she suddenly made up her mind to get out. She could not sit still any longer. She felt she must walk. As
she passed the Achilles Statue she stopped for a minute and looked at it. Her heart was beating fast. After
all Edgar Allan Poe had written detective stories… When she reached her flat at last and opened the door,
she saw several hats in the hall. They were all there. She went into the drawing room. She cried out and
said she had kept them waiting so long, she asked them if they had no tea. They were curious and asked
her if she had managed to get hold of him. Mrs. Forrester answered that she had gotten something quite
wonderful to tell them, she was going to write a detective story. They looked at her with open mouths.
She said that she was going to raise the detective story to the level of art, it had come to her in Hyde Park,
it was a murder story and she shall call it The Achilles Statue. The young writer asked what about Albert.
Mrs. Forrester said that she had known she went out to do something about Albert, but she had quite
forgotten what had been. They asked if she hadn`t seen Albert. She answered that she had forgotten all
about him. She gave a laugh and said that he should keep his cook, she couldn`t bother about Albert, she
was going to write a detective story. The guests cried out and said to her that she was too, too wonderful.