Question

Answer in your own word.

Although the author was not a vindictive man, he was very happy to see her weigh twenty-one stone and had finally had his revenge. What makes him say this? Explain.

Answer 1

Twenty years earlier, the writer was earning barely enough money to make both ends meet. The lady wanted him to give her luncheon at Foyot's, an expensive restaurant. The writer thought that he could stand her a modest luncheon. The lady reassured him by saying that she never ate anything for luncheon'. However, she ended by eating about six things, some of which were very expensive; yet she insisted till the end that she never ate more than one thing for luncheon and advised him against 'filling his stomach with a lot of meat' when all he had eaten was one small mutton chop. The writer was finally left with a whole month before him and no money in his pocket. He could not forget this incident, and when he met her twenty years later, she had become very fat and weighed 21 stone. This made the writer feel that though he was not a vindictive man, he had got his revenge.