Philemon was not amused. He had decided then that since Silas Mthimkhulu was evidently a man of great means, he would take great advantage of his hospitality. And so he had liberally helped himself to the food and alcohol on offer. It was while he was on his fourth Castle Lager that he heard his wife tell the lady of the house her riches-to-rags story. She told of how she, Sitshengisiwe, had been born into wealth, and how he, Philemon, had pulled her down and halted her progress and advancement in the world. She did not say this in as many words, but he heard it in the gist of what she was saying. And then she told Philemon’s deepest and most closely held secret – she told Bodecia that the house and almost everything in it had been given to them by the Rutherfords. Since Philemon had long kept this a secret from his neighbours, Sitshengisiwe talking about it so casually had felt like more than merely a betrayal; it had felt like a dagger in the back – plunged in when least expected.

Philemon knew that he had let his wife down, that he had promised things at the beginning of their courtship that he had left unfulfilled during their marriage. But it was not as if he had not provided her with a good life. Yes, they might have received most of what they owned from the Rutherfords, but they had received it because of his hard work. They lived in one of the better townships and owned some of the finer things – things meant for the European consumer – thanks to him. How could she not see that? How could she be so ungrateful as not to see that?

The way Sitshengisiwe carried on, it was as if she had not disappointed him in turn. Long gone was the wild, pretty young thing who had laughed at all his jokes. In her place was a sober Christian woman who wore a Baptist doek to bed and made Jesus Christ too much of her Lord and personal Saviour. Philemon did not go about complaining to other men that he could not remember the last time she had allowed him to lie with her in the biblical sense, because he respected their marriage too much to air their dirty laundry in public.