Martha, Eric and George by Margery Sharp

She doesn’t have time to reflect on this because in the studio le maître has taken away Martha’s pencils and insists that she would learn to use paint,’ if he had to beat her over the head.’ ‘l’m sorry I ever had anything to do with you, and I don’t like your mother either.’ ‘I don’t want to get married to anyone,’ stated Martha deliberately, ‘ and if I did it wouldn’t be you. Eric of course is more in love, Martha while finding the experience quite enjoyable soon realises she wants to get away from Eric. Martha and Eric get together, as young people are wont to do. Then Eric’s mother is called away to England for a family emergency and temptation arises. Martha is not impressed by Eric or his mother, but she finds they have a deep bath and plentiful hot water, so she develops the habit of visiting Eric and his mother for supper every Friday and luxuriating in the bath before dinner.

Thus Martha, plain and stocky as she was, filled a space too long vacant. She is British, and he has the mistaken idea that she is a ‘sweet young English girl all by herself in Paris.’ His mother has come with him to Paris, and he spends most of his time when he is not working with her friends playing bridge or meeting nice English people after the Anglican service. Here she makes the acquaintance of a young man, Eric, who is working in the Paris branch of the City of London Bank.Įric is drawn to Martha for several reasons. She works hard at her art, she steadfastly refuses to learn French, and being Martha, she spends every lunch hour munching on ‘half a French loaf well stuffed with charcuterie’ on the same seat in the Tuileries Gardens. Martha goes to Paris to stay with Madame Dubois in an apartment in the rue de Vaugirard, and soon settles into a regular life. ‘I shouldn’t think it likely myself…she must weight close on ten stone.’ Her aunt is worried she might ‘come to harm’ but Mr Joyce reassures her Martha is only eighteen and Harry and Dolores have their doubts about Paris, but Mr Joyce sets up her accommodation with a highly reputable widow and her daughter and secures a place for her in studio with a ma î tre who will exercise a firm hand on the wilful Martha. He was himself an artist manqu é, destined to make a fortune from the fur trade: in Martha finding a vicarious fruition. He is Martha’s best friend, the only one who recognises her prodigious talent. Martha is eighteen now and Mr Joyce has been watching her progress as an artist very closely. ‘What I’ve been thinking about Martha is, she ought to go to Paris.’ It’s Saturday night and Martha is wallowing in the bath, one of the few sensual experiences she enjoys (apart from eating) when her patron, Mr Joyce, drops the bombshell to her long- suffering aunt and her husband Harry.

Martha, Eric and George by Margery Sharp