Mt Baker - Day 84 (The Painted Veil)

"...the painted veil which those who live call Life" These were words, recalled by a certain physician who accompanied me during the return flight from Las Vegas, taken from an untitled sonnet by Percy Bysshe Shelley. My good and fellow travelling doctor went on to relate the story of two individuals, Kitty Garstin and Walter Fane which drew further meaning to these somewhat cryptic words. It is a love story about two souls with whom he apparently had some connection. I will eventually relate why such a story should be mentioned here given the goals climbing for sight and sound and why I would try to repeat it justly. It is a story that speaks to perhaps all of us of the human capacity for personal growth and change.

It happened several years ago. Kitty was 27 at the time. The daughter of a London socialite, engaging, and radiant ("her beautiful eyes, dewy ponds under forest trees, held an enchanting kindness") , our heroine was regretably filled with shallow ambitions, the greatest of which was to marry before her younger sister, Doris. Walter on the other hand was a reserved, somewhat bland individual; a bacteriologist/MD who came to be quite fond of Kitty and eventually proposed marriage. He brings his beloved but, as I begin to understand, indifferent companion to Hong Kong so as to complete his work with an English international aid group. There existence becomes rather mundane. It was clear Kitty really saw this more a marriage of circumstance than passion. She soon comes to resent their relationship and eventually begins a torrid affair with a fellow by the name of Charles Townsend, a married man who turns out to be equally shallow, self-serving, and deceitful. Walter stumbles upon this affair and, under English law, threatens to expose both individuals in court as a basis for divorce. Charles, to avoid scandel that would threaten his career in the diplomatic service as well as his marriage, breaks off his relationship with Kitty.

Now the real story begins. I will continue tomorrow.