flabby
compared to these two.
You're making a fool of yourself, Susan.
Good. And you're playing me for one.
Suddenly, Enright began appealing to Leo and
Mortmain. You see, she doesn't mind using your flat as an
arena of battle. Well, I'm not biting today, Susan. Excuse
me. I shall see you at the office, gentlemen.
He turned on his heel, in a way which implied not a
retreat but a dignified withdrawal.
Coward, Susan yelled. Craven bastard! Back to your
whore.
His retreating steps could be heard on the stairs, and Leo
closed the door, shaking his head.
Mortmain said, The bugger needs a broken nose. I don't
think we should take that from anyone, Leo.
Leo looked at me. I'm sorry, love, he told me, as if the
madman at the door had soured everything.
Susan turned, taken out of herself by Leo's concern, and
came and hugged me. At that second, I began to resent
her.
She said, I'm not going to risk that you'll be bothered
any further. I'll go to his bloody room at the hotel.
We told her to stay for breakfast first. But Dotty was not
as warm towards her as the men. And later Dotty would
tell me she believed that from that day, Major Enright,
despite all conscious professionalism, at some level wished
them ill, and even wished them dead.
Six
At morning tea time during that day's meeting, I
approached Major Enright to make the normal speech,
which would have consisted of: Sir, I don't care who you are.
I don't intend to stay in the army after the war, and so I don't
have to kowtow to anyone. I'm surprised a regular officer
would come to other officers' doors making the accusations
you did. And I won't have my wife upset by outbursts.
I had to queue – I saw Rufus giving him a bit of a shellacking
too. But Enright's face remained set though he was very
pale. He was probably copping mullock from his girlfriend as
well, and so he should.
Later, he came to Rufus and me voluntarily. He said, Unfortunate
scene this morning. That bloody woman has the power
to put everyone in the wrong. Sorry for anything untoward I
said. The woman knows I'm seeking a divorce, and that's that.
Divorce is a big enough disadvantage for a professional officer,
though many colleagues have remarked to me how inappropriate
a soldier's wife Susan makes. And of course, I overlook
anything extreme you might have said. Can we all be men
about this? And gentlemen as well?
That was as good as we could hope for. Rufus nodded with
a half-smile on his face. Later at lunch, he said to me, The
bugger only learned to talk like that from a West End play, on
secondment to British regiments in India. He gets it all out of
sequence, anyhow, and he gave himself away at the end by
pleading.
I wondered where he thought I learned to talk. But I think
he was saying the major's utterances were only skin deep. In
any case, we agreed, it was as good an apology as we would
get from Enright.
After Leo and Rufus had gone to work on the morning of
the confrontation between Major Enright and Leo and
Rufus, I decided to go into town by tram to look at Myers
and other department stores of Melbourne renown. You
cannot imagine the attraction of such an idea to someone
raised in the Braidwood and Canberra of the time. Captain
Foxhill had lined up a part-time job for me doing filing
for the Transport Corps at Victoria Barracks, where Leo
frequently did his afternoon gymnastics. But I did not have
to start for a few days.
I was thus able to leave Dotty to work on her mysterious
book, and would be able to return in the afternoon and
ask her, as if I routinely asked people this, How is your
book coming along?
Susan Enright, still on the premises, complicated all this
in a peculiar way. She asked if she could come to town with
me? She seemed quite cheery, ready for a day's window-
shopping after the scene with her husband that morning.
I couldn't say no, but from her typewriter, Dotty asked,
Didn't you say you intended to book into the Windsor?
Susan said she would collect her luggage
compared to these two.
You're making a fool of yourself, Susan.
Good. And you're playing me for one.
Suddenly, Enright began appealing to Leo and
Mortmain. You see, she doesn't mind using your flat as an
arena of battle. Well, I'm not biting today, Susan. Excuse
me. I shall see you at the office, gentlemen.
He turned on his heel, in a way which implied not a
retreat but a dignified withdrawal.
Coward, Susan yelled. Craven bastard! Back to your
whore.
His retreating steps could be heard on the stairs, and Leo
closed the door, shaking his head.
Mortmain said, The bugger needs a broken nose. I don't
think we should take that from anyone, Leo.
Leo looked at me. I'm sorry, love, he told me, as if the
madman at the door had soured everything.
Susan turned, taken out of herself by Leo's concern, and
came and hugged me. At that second, I began to resent
her.
She said, I'm not going to risk that you'll be bothered
any further. I'll go to his bloody room at the hotel.
We told her to stay for breakfast first. But Dotty was not
as warm towards her as the men. And later Dotty would
tell me she believed that from that day, Major Enright,
despite all conscious professionalism, at some level wished
them ill, and even wished them dead.
Six
At morning tea time during that day's meeting, I
approached Major Enright to make the normal speech,
which would have consisted of: Sir, I don't care who you are.
I don't intend to stay in the army after the war, and so I don't
have to kowtow to anyone. I'm surprised a regular officer
would come to other officers' doors making the accusations
you did. And I won't have my wife upset by outbursts.
I had to queue – I saw Rufus giving him a bit of a shellacking
too. But Enright's face remained set though he was very
pale. He was probably copping mullock from his girlfriend as
well, and so he should.
Later, he came to Rufus and me voluntarily. He said, Unfortunate
scene this morning. That bloody woman has the power
to put everyone in the wrong. Sorry for anything untoward I
said. The woman knows I'm seeking a divorce, and that's that.
Divorce is a big enough disadvantage for a professional officer,
though many colleagues have remarked to me how inappropriate
a soldier's wife Susan makes. And of course, I overlook
anything extreme you might have said. Can we all be men
about this? And gentlemen as well?
That was as good as we could hope for. Rufus nodded with
a half-smile on his face. Later at lunch, he said to me, The
bugger only learned to talk like that from a West End play, on
secondment to British regiments in India. He gets it all out of
sequence, anyhow, and he gave himself away at the end by
pleading.
I wondered where he thought I learned to talk. But I think
he was saying the major's utterances were only skin deep. In
any case, we agreed, it was as good an apology as we would
get from Enright.
After Leo and Rufus had gone to work on the morning of
the confrontation between Major Enright and Leo and
Rufus, I decided to go into town by tram to look at Myers
and other department stores of Melbourne renown. You
cannot imagine the attraction of such an idea to someone
raised in the Braidwood and Canberra of the time. Captain
Foxhill had lined up a part-time job for me doing filing
for the Transport Corps at Victoria Barracks, where Leo
frequently did his afternoon gymnastics. But I did not have
to start for a few days.
I was thus able to leave Dotty to work on her mysterious
book, and would be able to return in the afternoon and
ask her, as if I routinely asked people this, How is your
book coming along?
Susan Enright, still on the premises, complicated all this
in a peculiar way. She asked if she could come to town with
me? She seemed quite cheery, ready for a day's window-
shopping after the scene with her husband that morning.
I couldn't say no, but from her typewriter, Dotty asked,
Didn't you say you intended to book into the Windsor?
Susan said she would collect her luggage
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