|
After reading Wilfrids note she said to herself blankly: For alove-letter its
not a love-letter. Why she should feel so, going to a private lunchwith her
lover, she could not have explained.
Id sooner die to give them adeath-blow
than to keep them alive.
Would you mindtelling Mother and Hubert for me,
Dad?
Yes, Dad, but Ive heard Hubert talk in much the same way aboutthat.
Desert
got up, went to a drawer and took out a manuscript. There are two questions,
Michael, and so far as I can see theyrequite separate.
Being before her time,
she stoppedat Mount Street to titivate.
Hell have another point of view; and
itwont be orthodox. She stopped at last and added:Uncle, please dont look like
that! Winchesterseems to me so superior and dry. Yes; but Ive seen people seem
so unalterably in love that theywere divorced within the year. It concerns you;
and its queer and damaging.
It only means, she thought, something Ive
forgotten. Hehad gone off to the war when she was ten.
Winchesterseems to me so
superior and dry.
Itll be good for Stack, and I want to think.
He onlyhad about
five minutes to decide in.
The General drew deeply at his pipe, which emitted a
gurglingsound. You dont think, said Michael miserably, that youd be justifiedin
denying the thing? Its the quality, youremember, that got Lucifer into
trouble.
And seizing a piece of paper, hewrote:Cork Street: Saturday.
Hell be a
pariah, burst from the General, hell be a pariah!
After all, what business is
it of theirs?
If I must die I want a reality to die for. Hes written a poem on
it, and a jolly good oneit is.
Winchesterseems to me so superior and dry. And
with that blunt reflection he crossed Bond Street and went downHay Hill into
Berkeley Square. Then,without looking at him, she said:Do you want to get rid
of me, Wilfrid?
That sort of thing is only in books, Wilfrid. They seemed
tolive brightly between her and the moving, moonlit, wind-brushedsky. It only
means, she thought, something Ive forgotten.
The queer thing is, if
hedthreatened torture Id have stood out. Theres nothing of that in the poem,
said Michael.
I can explain it, Dad, she said, and thought: It will only
makehim understand even less.
Michael had recoiled before the passion in this
outburst, and wasstanding miserable and glum. Dinny did not receive this note
till Monday morning, and was themore relieved to get it. He was down for both,
and the matter had not yet beendecided. The chief of themhad him brought into
his tent and offered him his life if he wouldembrace Islam.
|
