"The Story of a Scar" Summary

Dr. Wayland is late and has nothing to read in his waiting room, so the narrator politely asks his fellow patient how she has come by the scar on her face. Insulted, the woman takes an angry draw on her cigarette, and asks why his nose is bandaged. He smashed into a headboard while making love. She chuckles, mellowing, her appetites whetted. The narrator is small compared to this robust woman with firm round legs and a considerable chest, who remarks it was surely not his wife, because no wife is worth that, and adds the best men do not get married, they fish. The narrator insists he is no adulterer, but finds companionship wherever he can. The woman knows the ways of men and would not trust any of them to take...