Individual Reading. Summary №6

Mrs. Tiare Johnson, the proprietress of the local hotel tells the narrator a story of how she helped Strickland to marry a native woman Ata. After the marriage they settled down in Ata’s house and the three following years became the happiest in Strickland’s life. Ata took care of him and their children while Charles continued drawing. Several years later the man got leprosy, however, the disease didn’t break him for Charles continued to paint even more passionately. On the walls of his house he drew a masterpiece representing the hidden depth of nature, but after Charles’ death Ata burnt down the house as her husband’s dying wish.

The narrator returns to London where he meets Mrs. Strickland again. He tells her everything he knows about her husband not mentioning however Ata and her son. Mrs. Strickland is very proud to be the wife of a genius and shows the narrator the copies of Charles’ pictures.