Jane Fowler marries a man half her age; her cousin is convinced it won’t last, but it does — and Jane becomes the toast of London society. But then…

I’ve never read Maugham before, but really enjoyed this: crisp prose, and the sense of a story that is very well constructed, as apparently innocuous details established at the start are shown to be more significant towards the end. Maugham is another author with two stories in the anthology; I shall be pleased to read him again in due course.

Rating: ****