"Mrs. Eglantine."

The third of six brief newspaper "Tales of Tahiti."

The narrator describes a sad British divorcee; she waits for her French lover to arrive and marry her, but, knowing that both the French authorities and the man's parents oppose the match, she drinks from morning until night.

Bates would retell his encounter with the woman in the third volume of his autobiography (The World in Ripeness, pp. 144-146).

In the Evening Standard (October 19, 1955), Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal and Other Stories/The Enchantress and other Stories (1961), Seven by Five/The Best of H.E. Bates (1963), A Month by the Lake & Other Stories (1987).