The Luck of Ginger Coffey by Brian Moore

Author:Brian Moore [Moore, Brian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: General, history, Literature, LANGUAGE. LINGUISTICS. LITERATURE
ISBN: 9780771093739
Publisher: BiblioBazaar
Published: 1960-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

"What?"

"Vera, I know Grosvenor loves you. But I do too."

"Ha, ha!"

"Don't laugh, Vera. I do love you. Honestly I do."

"Listen to me," she said. "You don't know what love is. Just remember this, Ginger. Love is unselfish, it's doing things for other people and not asking them to do things for you. If you really loved me, you'd let me go. You'd give me a divorce. You'd think of my happiness and not your own. Gerry does. Now, go back to your own bed. Good night."

He stood up. Heavily he recrossed the room. He got into his bed and lay down on his side, looking at the darkness where she was. Unselfish. So that was what she wanted. Some proof of devotion greater than self. Was that the thing that would win her back? Was it? He rolled over and stared at the invisible ceiling. Love is unselfish. Was that what she had found lacking in his love for her? Was that why Grosvenor, weeping but prepared to wait, had won her instead? If only he could think this out. If only his brain could puzzle out what she had said and find the answer, that absolute answer he felt he had almost grasped.

It was tiring to think. He was not used to thinking in abstractions. But still — was selflessness what he lacked? Was that true love? Would the greatest proof of his love for her be his willingness to sacrifice himself, the way Jesus had sacrificed himself for mankind? Jesus considered that the highest form of love, didn't he? Well, there you are, then.

"Vera?" he said.

"Go to sleep."

"Listen, Vera," he said. "I've made up my mind. If I don't get that reporter's job at the end of this week, I'll bow out. If I don't get it, you can go back to Gros-

venor and you can take Paulie. And 111 give you your divorce into the bargain. Now, isn't that unselfish of me? Isn't it?"

He waited for her answer. There was no answer. "I mean it," he said. He did mean it.

Twelve Next morning he awoke on the cross of his new obsession. He woke and went to work, a man who had decided to gamble his all on one event. He started fresh on that Wednesday morning, convinced that if he got the job, all his worries would end. Veronica would stay, Grosvenor would disappear, Paulie would be his Apple again, his future would be assured.

And if he did not get die job? If he did not get the job he would go down like a man. Lonely and proud, he would cast himself adrift from all who knew him, his boats burned forever. He would prove to her that he was a man of his word, the most unselfish lover in all the world, a man who could do a far, far better thing than Grosvenor ever would.

Not that he thought he'd have to, mind you. No, he was going to get the job, for sure. J.

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