The Letter And Other Stories: by W. Somerset Maugham.

Stories of Maugham are favourite for their wry wit along with a fresh look a tlife and virtues, or at least those of the virtues that often cause mayhem in lives and society, and more. He writes without blinkers about most affairs of any sort, be they of social or of hearts or of colonial empire.

His stories of south seas in particular deal with the colonial empire and its men and women, thrown in situations away from home and dealing with them in ways perhaps they would not at home due to social considerations - although that can at best be a guess - and hence a portrayal of human mind, heart and behaviour at its more original picture, of how people deal with life left to their own resources.
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The Letter:-


A murder of a paramour that happened in a moment of rage following frustration of losing the lover, gone wrong due to his having left a letter with his preferred mistress, who extorts the full value, which results in the husband coming to realise the wife was not an innocent pure woman assaulted by the loose character after all. They won't separate, not legally anyway, but their marriage and life together is now only a show for social reasons.
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