*This is Chapter 6 of Who Brought the Steak Tartare?, you may want to go back to Chapter 5 or start at the beginning.

I have said that this expedition was to be some years in duration, and it is appropriate therefore to consider the effect Franklin’s impending departure had on his wife, Jane.

As Franklin had come to some prominence through his connection to his famous cousin, Flinders, Jane felt even more keenly her unimpressive career. I do not believe that she envied Franklin’s small fame. Rather, I think that his attainment of even this modicum of attention caused Jane to doubt that success was her destiny. Prior to these events, Jane was confident that with enough persistence, her genius would be recognized. The disruption caused by the Aliens posed a new challenge, especially to someone who sought attention for the ancient art of epic poetry, but it had not seriously shaken Jane’s confidence. What shook her was that Franklin had never sought fame, and yet here it was.

When Flinders told them that he had been put in charge of the expedition, and that he had won a place for Franklin at his side, Jane slapped his face. Tradition holds that she feared Franklin would desert her, and so reacted out of desperation. But the truth is that Jane knew Franklin would turn the offer down if she asked him to; she slapped Flinders because she knew immediately that Franklin would have to go—the expedition would make him so famous that people might read his wife’s epic poetry—but she feared that she would be unable to keep on loving him while he was gone.