Two wives despaired of him,’ he said. ‘When he....

“ Two wives despaired of him,’ he said. ‘When he got engaged to Sylvia, she made it a condition that he should take the cure at Zurich. And it worked. He came back in three months a different man. And he hasn't touched a drop since, even though Sylvia walked out on him.’ ‘Why did she do that?’Well, poor Charlie got rather a bore when he stopped drinking. But that’s not really the point of the story. ”

Evelyn Waugh

From : Brideshead Revisited: The Sacred and Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder