The house of Miss Hilton was on sale after her death. Hat, the narrator’s friend told him that a pretty woman, an ugly man and a dog were the new occupants of the house. One of his friends had seen the lady earlier in a posh area of the city. The lady was too pretty, too well dressed and too refined to be fit for people in Miguel Street. So it was strange when people found her shopping for things like flour and rice.
The man was tall, thin and ugly. The narrator wondered how a pretty woman came to mix up with a man like that. The dog was ferocious.
One day all of a sudden the beatings began. The woman would run out screaming. The man used terrible language. The woman would run out crying on the street in fear that he would kill her.
One day the woman went to the narrator’s house. His mother consoled her. The woman said that something had happened to Tony as he was not like that earlier. But the beatings increased day by day. Once the narrator’s mother asked her why she did not leave that awful man and was surprised to hear that she loved that man. When the narrator’s mother asked what kind of love is this ‘she got harsh and said that King Edward left the throne for the sake of love love, love alone.
Tony went from bad to worse. He was abnormal. One day he grabbed a knife and began chasing her. She cried and burst out that she had nursed him, prayed for him and even given up her money family and husband and this was the result.
It became known that her former husband was a doctor who had a beautiful house and a nice car. The narrator’s mother suggested that she should return to her husband’s house. So she provided a week’s food for Tony and returned to her former husband’s house.
When Tony found out that he had been abandoned he brayed like a dog and started drinking heavily. The dog managed to free himself and ran away.
Later Tony was seen stretching on a mattress in one of the rooms and a ‘for sale’ sign outside the house. Again the house was sold. Years later Tony was seen driving a lorry and smoking a cigarette. The narrator saw the lady one day in her husband’s house.She was reading the newspaper sitting on an easy chair in the garden. A uniformed servant was laying the table for lunch. A new big black car was in the garage.