you I blame. But I will say this: I’ve niver heard of nobody changin’ her mind. Not as late as this, leastways .
She went into the kitchen banging the door behind her.
· · ·
Miss Fourdrinier is a real beauty and such a face promises other virtues that are hidden—so unlike the brazen vacancy of an Enid. And the fact that she keeps her counsel makes her all the more fascinating and mysterious.
Until I saw you I looked on womankind with a bitter smile. Distracted by your beauty, I have missed my footing on the path of life and fallen into the waters of love where I am drowning in the deep blue of your eyes .
· · ·
[A passage in Greek letters begins here. Note by CP .]
It is a hot day in July. We meet on the Battlefield. We lie concealed by a bush. She helps me to unbutton her bodice. Her golden hair is down now in the confusion of our haste and falls unregarded across her naked breasts. I brush it aside, my fingers just touching her . . .
Δ
[The passage in Greek letters ends here. Note by CP .]
Tuesday 22 nd of December, 11 o’clock in the morning.
C ame down late and missed all the pother over Mrs Yass. She had not made breakfast and when Mother went up to her room she found it had been cleared and there was no clue to where she has gone.
The letter-carrier had brought a letter for me and it lay reproachfully on my place at the table. Mother was annoyed with me and I soon found out why. Bartlemew’s mother had written on the envelope: Return to sender. My son has left home and I have no communication with him .
Luckily, Effie had gone to spend the day with Lady Terrewest.
I could not think of anyone else to go to , I said.
Even his own parent has disavowed him , Mother said.
He’s not my friend , I said. I never liked him. I’ve told you .
But you met him during the holidays .
I only ever ran into him in the street by chance .
You seem to be forgetting, Richard, that you brought him to the house. You introduced him into the family .
She said it as if she were charging me with some capital offence. I said: You must be confusing him with someone else .
Noon.
Have just remembered that I once ran into him in the street during the Easter vacation. We were almost outside our house and he made it plain he wanted to be invited in.
Father came home earlier than usual and the three of us talked in the drawing-room and Bartlemew mentioned that he had sung at Harrow and Father encouraged him to join the Cathedral choir. By that stage the malevolence of the Precentor had barred Father from involvement with the choristers.
5 o’clock.
Walked to Thrubwell with the idea of meeting Euphemia. I was approaching the village when a big wagon came lumbering towards me. It halted about thirty yards away and the carter got down to look at the hoof of one of his team.
There was a man lying in the back among the bales and he was struggling with something. I came closer and realised that he had a dog—a bull-terrier—under his coat. It was trying to escape and managed to get out from under the coat and I saw that it was wearing chains—iron links looped around its body whose purpose I could not imagine. The beast jumped out of the vehicle while the man shouted at it and then tugged on the thick leather lead fastened to its collar whose other end was shackled to the stranger’s belt with iron fetters.
The man, still in the wagon, had yanked the lead so viciously that the animal was pulled off its feet. Then he knelt over the edge of the vehicle, took a whip from his belt and began to give it a prolonged and brutal flogging while the creature growled and whimpered and bowed its head in submission. He stopped the beating and shouted: Get back, sirrah. Damn you!
The dog tried to jump up but the weight of the chains was preventing it.
I had been standing a few feet from the wagon and now the man noticed me and said: What the devil are you doing? Walk on or you’ll get the same treatment .
To my
She went into the kitchen banging the door behind her.
· · ·
Miss Fourdrinier is a real beauty and such a face promises other virtues that are hidden—so unlike the brazen vacancy of an Enid. And the fact that she keeps her counsel makes her all the more fascinating and mysterious.
Until I saw you I looked on womankind with a bitter smile. Distracted by your beauty, I have missed my footing on the path of life and fallen into the waters of love where I am drowning in the deep blue of your eyes .
· · ·
[A passage in Greek letters begins here. Note by CP .]
It is a hot day in July. We meet on the Battlefield. We lie concealed by a bush. She helps me to unbutton her bodice. Her golden hair is down now in the confusion of our haste and falls unregarded across her naked breasts. I brush it aside, my fingers just touching her . . .
Δ
[The passage in Greek letters ends here. Note by CP .]
Tuesday 22 nd of December, 11 o’clock in the morning.
C ame down late and missed all the pother over Mrs Yass. She had not made breakfast and when Mother went up to her room she found it had been cleared and there was no clue to where she has gone.
The letter-carrier had brought a letter for me and it lay reproachfully on my place at the table. Mother was annoyed with me and I soon found out why. Bartlemew’s mother had written on the envelope: Return to sender. My son has left home and I have no communication with him .
Luckily, Effie had gone to spend the day with Lady Terrewest.
I could not think of anyone else to go to , I said.
Even his own parent has disavowed him , Mother said.
He’s not my friend , I said. I never liked him. I’ve told you .
But you met him during the holidays .
I only ever ran into him in the street by chance .
You seem to be forgetting, Richard, that you brought him to the house. You introduced him into the family .
She said it as if she were charging me with some capital offence. I said: You must be confusing him with someone else .
Noon.
Have just remembered that I once ran into him in the street during the Easter vacation. We were almost outside our house and he made it plain he wanted to be invited in.
Father came home earlier than usual and the three of us talked in the drawing-room and Bartlemew mentioned that he had sung at Harrow and Father encouraged him to join the Cathedral choir. By that stage the malevolence of the Precentor had barred Father from involvement with the choristers.
5 o’clock.
Walked to Thrubwell with the idea of meeting Euphemia. I was approaching the village when a big wagon came lumbering towards me. It halted about thirty yards away and the carter got down to look at the hoof of one of his team.
There was a man lying in the back among the bales and he was struggling with something. I came closer and realised that he had a dog—a bull-terrier—under his coat. It was trying to escape and managed to get out from under the coat and I saw that it was wearing chains—iron links looped around its body whose purpose I could not imagine. The beast jumped out of the vehicle while the man shouted at it and then tugged on the thick leather lead fastened to its collar whose other end was shackled to the stranger’s belt with iron fetters.
The man, still in the wagon, had yanked the lead so viciously that the animal was pulled off its feet. Then he knelt over the edge of the vehicle, took a whip from his belt and began to give it a prolonged and brutal flogging while the creature growled and whimpered and bowed its head in submission. He stopped the beating and shouted: Get back, sirrah. Damn you!
The dog tried to jump up but the weight of the chains was preventing it.
I had been standing a few feet from the wagon and now the man noticed me and said: What the devil are you doing? Walk on or you’ll get the same treatment .
To my
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