. . . we would:
Violet married the piano tuner when he was a young man. Belle married him when he was old.
There was a little more to it that that, because in choosing Violet to be his wife the piano tuner had rejected Belle, which was something everyone remembered when the second wedding was announced.
Opening lines of William Trevor, "The Piano Tuner's Wife," from William Trevor: Selected Stories (Viking Penguin 2010). Here are the closing lines:
Belle would win in the end because the living always do. And that seemed fair also, since Violet had won in the beginning and had had the better years.
As for what's in between, read it for yourself. Here's a sample:
Suddenly more confident, not caring what people thought, Belle rooted out Violet's plants from the flowerbeds at the back, and grassed the flowerbeds over.
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