Trailing Margaret

I think, now, I have located Ms Fountaine’s two places of residence. This morning I reached a part in her memoirs that filled me with regret and empathy for her – when she found out that Khalil had lied to her and was in fact married. His relentless affection and apparent devotion had slowly ground down her morals. I found it cruel; and yet, she lived beside him anyway, and honoured him even when she discovered his double life. There is a part of her memoirs, prior to meeting the impish Khalil, where she says: ‘Freedom is the crowning joy of life. Thank God there are few on earth I really care for; I would there were none. I want to see all I can of this beautiful world before I have to leave it, and life is so distressingly short. It is the affections that hold us back from great enterprises, it is the affections that tie us down to one spot – if not in body, in spirit. And then at the end of it all life is over and we have accomplished none of those great things our soaring imaginations one led us to suppose were to be achieved.’