The Heart of the Matter

Returning from Lagos and no longer in a hotel, Wilson talks with Harris in their new Nissen hut owned by the Government. Harris laments that there may not be cockroaches to battle in the Government huts. Among Wilson’s things, Harris finds a copy of The Downhamian, the alumni newsletter of the Downhamian boarding school that both Wilson and Harris attended. Leafing through its pages, Harris finds a poem dedicated to “L.S.” and initialed at the foot by “E.W.” Harris makes an offhand comment about the poem to which Wilson becomes irate and filled with embarrassment and self-loathing. Wilson lies to Harris and reiterates that he doesn’t read poetry. Later, Wilson wonders about the “madness” (154) that induced him to compose the poem and how he has spent a lifetime deceiving and lying to people without remorse.

Meanwhile, Scobie and Helen are now embroiled in a passionate sexual affair. They have a conversation that descends into vehement fighting. Helen accuses Scobie of hypocrisy for being too Catholic to divorce Louise, but not too Catholic to have an adulterous affair. Scobie thinks that he has “underrated her power of giving pain” (163). Helen kicks Scobie out of her Nissen hut and tells him never to return.