Why did he leave his wife in that cruel way?

He is well known to me, so I asked him outright "Why did you leave your wife, why did you do it in that ruthless way, what went wrong? I mean you admit yourself that she is an intelligent and attractive lady, far more so than all the others you know."

As a bit of background, he arrived in New York and rented a small apartment in the then slightly unfashionable Battery district. He was not allowed to work because he did not have the permit to do so, but on the plane over he had decided what he would do next.

Investment. He was going to risk his money in the New York stock market using the same principles that had made him serious money in London starting with almost nothing. If it all went wrong and he lost out seriously, he would kill himself. So what! he figured, you've gotta go some day and he'd rather do it if he has to while healthy but have nothing left, than rot away.

That was maybe a year ago and he has managed to repeat his investment success.

I flew out to see him and I put the questions to him. I was desperately keen to know the answers.

"You know" he said, "I've asked myself the same questions over and over. I have no answer, I can't explain it in simple rational terms. I just woke up one morning and thought, hell, I want something different and I want it now. It was not because of her, my wife, she had done nothing to make me do what I did, it was entirely internal to me. But I can't supply a logical reason. I guess if at the time I had started questioning myself as to why, I would probably never have done it. The impulse would have gone."

Impulse ruled this guy. One of my oldest friends, he had always had nerves of cold steel, and tremendous instincts especially with investments. The combination of guts and ability was unbeatable. For example he would risk everything on just one share that he had researched, but only fairly superficially. I never had the cojones to do that, but mostly he would win. Shares was a game at which I was not too bad myself, but I was nothing, absolutely nothing, compared with him. Because I would have to ask why too much.

After spending a memorable couple of days with him, I came home. I had been divorced a few years back, but not long ago I had started living with this wonderful lady. If honest I would have to say that she was the proverbial woman of my dreams. I'd known her for a long time and she had always dazzled me with her looks and wit, but there hadn't been this relationship between us until fairly recently.

I walked in and she threw her arms around me, hugged me tight. I loved that. Even at my age, not exactly completely inexperienced with women, this was a moment of perfect emotional intensity.

I said "I just don't understand how he could have left you in that way."