blood brothers.
‘Thanks, thanks. It showed the
way things are going. A colleague in the House rather amusingly phrased it to
me. We are the masters now, he said. The fight itself was a heartening
experience. I used to meet Cutts when I was younger, but we have not yet made
contact at Westminster. He had a sister called Mercy, I remember from the old
days. Rather a plain girl. There are some things I’d like to discuss with him.’
He left the area of the sofa.
Now the war was over one constantly found oneself congratulating people. In a
mysterious manner almost everyone who had survived seemed also to have had a
leg up. For example, books written by myself, long out of print, appeared
better known after nearly seven years of literary silence. This was a more
acceptable side of growing older. Even Quiggin, Craggs and Bagshaw had the air
of added stature. Craggs was talking to Norah. Either to get away from him, or
because she had decided that contact with Pamela was unavoidable, better to be
faced coolly, she made some excuse, and came towards us. She may also have felt
the need to restore her own reputation for disregarding commonplaces of
sentiment in relation to such things as love and death. A brisk talk to Pamela
offered opportunity to cover both elements with lightness of touch.
‘Hullo, Pam.’
Norah’s manner was jaunty.
‘Hullo.’
‘I never expected to see you
here today.’
‘You wouldn’t have done, if I’d
had my way.’
‘Unlike you not to have your
way, Pam.’
‘That’s good from you. You were
always wanting me to do things I hated.’
‘But didn’t succeed.’
‘It didn’t look like that to
me.’
‘How have you been, Pam?’
‘Like hell.’
After saying that Pamela picked
up the book from the floor – revealed as Hugo’s copy of
Camel Ride to the Tomb
, which he had brought down with
him – smoothed out the crumpled pages, and began to turn them absently.
Conceiving Norah well qualified by past experience to contend with manoeuvring
of this particular kind, in which emotional undercurrents were veiled by
unpromising mannerisms, I moved away. Their current relationship would be
better hammered out unimpeded by male surveillance. Craggs, left on his own by
Norah, had joined Quiggin and Frederica, who were talking together. In his
elaborately refined vocables, reminiscent of a stage clergyman in spite of his
anti-clericalism, he began to speak of Erridge.
‘Such satisfying recollections
of your brother were brought home to us – JG and myself, I mean – by the letter
you are discussing. It revealed the man, the humanity under a perplexed, one
might almost say headstrong exterior.’
Quiggin nodded judiciously. He
may have felt a follow-up by Craggs would be helpful after whatever he had
himself been saying, because he led me away from the other two. He had been
looking rather fiercely round the room while engaged with Frederica. Now his
manner became jocular.
‘Only through me you
infiltrated this house.’
Notwithstanding fairly powerful
efforts on his own part to prevent any such ingress, that was broadly speaking
true. Obstructive tactics at such a distant date could be overlooked in the
light of subsequent events. In any case Quiggin seemed to have forgotten this
obverse side of his own benevolence. I supposed he was going to explain
whatever dispositions Erridge had left which affected the new publishing firm,
but something else was on his mind.
‘You saw Mona?’ he asked.
‘I had quite a talk with her.’
‘She was looking very
prosperous.’
‘She’s married to an Air
Vice-Marshal.’
‘Good God.’
‘She appears to like it.’
‘Rather an intellectual
comedown.’
‘You never can tell.’
‘Did she ask about me?’
‘Said she’d sighted you outside
the church and waved.’
‘Not particularly good taste
her coming, I thought. But listen – I understand you met Bagshaw, and he talked
‘Thanks, thanks. It showed the
way things are going. A colleague in the House rather amusingly phrased it to
me. We are the masters now, he said. The fight itself was a heartening
experience. I used to meet Cutts when I was younger, but we have not yet made
contact at Westminster. He had a sister called Mercy, I remember from the old
days. Rather a plain girl. There are some things I’d like to discuss with him.’
He left the area of the sofa.
Now the war was over one constantly found oneself congratulating people. In a
mysterious manner almost everyone who had survived seemed also to have had a
leg up. For example, books written by myself, long out of print, appeared
better known after nearly seven years of literary silence. This was a more
acceptable side of growing older. Even Quiggin, Craggs and Bagshaw had the air
of added stature. Craggs was talking to Norah. Either to get away from him, or
because she had decided that contact with Pamela was unavoidable, better to be
faced coolly, she made some excuse, and came towards us. She may also have felt
the need to restore her own reputation for disregarding commonplaces of
sentiment in relation to such things as love and death. A brisk talk to Pamela
offered opportunity to cover both elements with lightness of touch.
‘Hullo, Pam.’
Norah’s manner was jaunty.
‘Hullo.’
‘I never expected to see you
here today.’
‘You wouldn’t have done, if I’d
had my way.’
‘Unlike you not to have your
way, Pam.’
‘That’s good from you. You were
always wanting me to do things I hated.’
‘But didn’t succeed.’
‘It didn’t look like that to
me.’
‘How have you been, Pam?’
‘Like hell.’
After saying that Pamela picked
up the book from the floor – revealed as Hugo’s copy of
Camel Ride to the Tomb
, which he had brought down with
him – smoothed out the crumpled pages, and began to turn them absently.
Conceiving Norah well qualified by past experience to contend with manoeuvring
of this particular kind, in which emotional undercurrents were veiled by
unpromising mannerisms, I moved away. Their current relationship would be
better hammered out unimpeded by male surveillance. Craggs, left on his own by
Norah, had joined Quiggin and Frederica, who were talking together. In his
elaborately refined vocables, reminiscent of a stage clergyman in spite of his
anti-clericalism, he began to speak of Erridge.
‘Such satisfying recollections
of your brother were brought home to us – JG and myself, I mean – by the letter
you are discussing. It revealed the man, the humanity under a perplexed, one
might almost say headstrong exterior.’
Quiggin nodded judiciously. He
may have felt a follow-up by Craggs would be helpful after whatever he had
himself been saying, because he led me away from the other two. He had been
looking rather fiercely round the room while engaged with Frederica. Now his
manner became jocular.
‘Only through me you
infiltrated this house.’
Notwithstanding fairly powerful
efforts on his own part to prevent any such ingress, that was broadly speaking
true. Obstructive tactics at such a distant date could be overlooked in the
light of subsequent events. In any case Quiggin seemed to have forgotten this
obverse side of his own benevolence. I supposed he was going to explain
whatever dispositions Erridge had left which affected the new publishing firm,
but something else was on his mind.
‘You saw Mona?’ he asked.
‘I had quite a talk with her.’
‘She was looking very
prosperous.’
‘She’s married to an Air
Vice-Marshal.’
‘Good God.’
‘She appears to like it.’
‘Rather an intellectual
comedown.’
‘You never can tell.’
‘Did she ask about me?’
‘Said she’d sighted you outside
the church and waved.’
‘Not particularly good taste
her coming, I thought. But listen – I understand you met Bagshaw, and he talked
Similar Books
