‘I haven’t seen him for three or four years.’
‘Oh, I thought you might know him well.’
‘I used to.’
‘As a matter of fact, Peggy hasn’t spoken of Charles Stringham for ages,’ she said.
She did not actually toss her head—as girls are sometimes said to do in books—but that would have been the gesture appropriate to the tone in which she made this comment. It was evident that the subject of Stringham could supply no basis for discussion between us. I searched my mind for other themes. Lady Anne herself showed no sign of making any immediate contribution. She left the remains of her clear soup, and fixed her eyes on Miss Manasch; whether to satisfy herself about technical detail regarding the red dress, or to observe how well she was standing up to Sir Gavin’s interrogation, which hovered between flirtation and apprisement how best to handle his investments, I was unable to decide. Whatever the question, it was settled fairly quickly in her mind during the brief period in which soup plates were removed and fried sole presented.
‘What do you do?’ she asked. ‘I think men always enjoy talking about their work.’
I had the disturbing impression that she was preparing for some sort of a war between the sexes—as represented by herself and me—to break out at any moment. What vehement rôle she saw herself as playing in the life that surrounded us was problematical; some deep-felt resentment, comparable to Eleanor’s and yet widely differing from hers, clearly existed within her: her clothes, no doubt outward and visible sign of this rebellion against circumstance. I told her my firm specialised in art books, and attempted to steer a line from Mestroviç, with unsuccessful results. We talked for a time of Botticelli, the only painter in whom she appeared to feel any keen interest, a subject which led to the books of St. John Clarke, one of which was a story of Renaissance Italy. This was the author mentioned by Widmerpool as writing to The Times regarding the Haig statue.
‘And then there was one about the French Revolution.’
‘I was on the side of the People,’ she said, resolutely.
This assertion opened the road to discussion deeper, and altogether more searching, than I felt prepared to pursue at that stage of dinner. As it happened, there were by then signs all round the table of conversation becoming moribund. Lady Walpole-Wilson must have noticed this falling off, because she remarked at large that there were two dances being given that evening.
‘And both in Belgrave Square,’ said Archie Gilbert.
He sounded relieved that for once at least his self-imposed duties would not keep him travelling all over London; his worst nights being no doubt those experienced—as must happen once in a way—on occasions when a party was given in some big house at Richmond or Roehampton, while there was also, on the same night, perhaps more than one ball to be attended in the heart of London.
‘The Spaniards are having some sort of a reception there, too,’ said Tompsitt, who, having satisfied his immediate hunger, seemed disposed to show himself more genial than earlier. ‘At their new Embassy.’
I’m rather glad we don’t have to attend those big official crushes any more as a duty,’ said Lady Walpole-Wilson, with a sigh. ‘We had to turn out in honour of Prince Theodoric the other night, and, really, it was too exhausting. Now that one is rather out of touch with that world one does so much prefer just to see one’s own friends.’
‘Is Prince Theodoric over for long?’ asked Widmerpool, assuming an air of importance. ‘I understand he is here largely for economic reasons—I believe Donners-Brebner are considering big expansions in his country.’
‘Base metals, for one thing,’ said Tompsitt, with at least equal empressement. ‘There has also been talk of installing a railway to the coast. Am I right, Sir Gavin?’
At the phrase ‘base metals’ there had passed over Archie Gilbert’s face perhaps the most imperceptible flicker of professional interest, that died down almost immediately as he turned once more to speak with Barbara of dance bands.
‘No doubt about it,’ said Sir Gavin. ‘I used to see a lot of Theodoric’s father when I was chargé d’affaires there. We often went fishing together.’
‘Gavin was a great favourite with the old King,’ said Lady Walpole-Wilson, as if it were a matter of mild surprise to her that her husband could be a favourite with anyone. ‘I am afraid Prince Theodoric’s brother is quite a different sort of person from their father. Do you remember that awkward incident when Janet was staying with us and how nice the King was?’
Sir Gavin glanced across the table at his wife, possibly apprehensive for a moment that she seemed inclined to particularise more precisely than might be desirable at the dinner table this contrast between father and son. Perhaps he did not wish to bring up the episode, whatever it had been, in which ‘Janet’—his sister—had been involved.
‘Theodoric, on the other hand, is a serious young man,’ he said. ‘A pity, really, that he is not King. The party given for him at their Legation was certainly dull enough—though personally I enjoy such jollifications as, for example, the court ball when our own King and Queen visited Berlin in 1913.’
‘For the wedding of the Kaiser’s daughter?’ Tompsitt asked, briskly.
‘Princess Victoria Louise,’ said Sir Gavin, nodding with approval at this scoring of a point by his satellite. ‘I went quite by chance, in place of Saltonstall, who——’
‘Though, of course, it makes one feel quite ill to think of dancing with a German now,’ said Lady Walpole-Wilson, anxiously.
She had taken the war hard.
‘Do you really think so, Lady Walpole-Wilson?’ said Widmerpool. ‘Now, you know, I can feel no prejudice against the Germans. None whatever. French policy, on the other hand, I regard at the moment as very mistaken. Positively disastrous, in fact.’
‘They did the Torch Dance,’ said Sir Gavin, not to be put off nostalgic reminiscences so easily. ‘The King and the Tsar danced, with the bride between them. A splendid sight. Ah, well, little we thought . . .’
‘I loved the Swiss Guard when we were in Rome last winter,’ said Miss Manasch. ‘And the Noble Guard were divine, too. We saw them at our audience.’
‘But what a demoralising life for a young man,’ said Lady Walpole-Wilson. ‘I am sure many of them must make unsuitable marriages.’
‘I can just imagine myself checking a Papal Guardsman’s arms and equipment,’ said Pardoe. ‘Sergeant-Major, this halbert is filthy.’
‘I’d love to see you in those red and yellow and blue stripes, Johnny,’ said Miss Manasch, with perhaps a touch of unfriendliness. ‘They’d suit you.’
Discussion as to whether or not ceremony was desirable lasted throughout the cutlets and ice. Lady Anne and Tompsitt were against pomp and circumstance; Eleanor and Widmerpool now found themselves on the same side in defending a reasonable degree of outward show. Tompsitt was rather pleased at the general agreement that he would go to pieces in the Tropics as a result of not changing for dinner, and certainly, so far as his evening clothes were concerned, he put his principles into practice.
‘You should cart our Regimental Colour round,’ said Pardoe. ‘Then you’d all know what heavy ceremonial means. It’s like a Salvation Army banner.’
‘I’m always trying to get a decent Colour for the Guides,’ said Eleanor, ‘and not have to carry about a thing like a child’s Union Jack. Not that anyone cares.’
‘You won’t be too long, Gavin, will you?’ said Lady Walpole-Wilson at this, hastily rising from the table.
By then I had only exchanged a word or two with Barbara, though this, in a way, was a mark of intimacy rather than because she had been unwilling to talk, or because any change had already consciously taken place in our relationship. Most of dinner she had spent telling Archie Gilbert rather a long story about some dance. Now she turned towards me, just before she went through the door, and gave one of those half-smiles that I associated with moments—infrequent moments—when she was not quite sure of herself: smiles
which I found particularly hard to resist, because they seemed to show a less familiar, more mysterious side of her that noisiness and ragging were partly designed to conceal. On that occasion her look seemed to be intended perhaps to reconcile the fact that throughout the meal she had allowed me so little of her attention. Sir Gavin assured his wife that we would ‘not be long’ in further occupation of the dining-room; and, when the door was closed, he moved the port in the direction of Pardoe.
‘I hear you’re letting your shooting,’ he remarked.
‘Got to cut down somewhere,’ said Pardoe. ‘That seemed as good a place as anywhere to begin.’
‘Outgoings very heavy?’
‘A lot of things to be brought up to date.’
The two of them settled down to discuss Shropshire coverts, with which Sir Gavin had some familiarity since his father-in-law, Lord Aberavon, had settled on the borders of that county during the latter part of his life; though the house had been sold at his death. Archie Gilbert, having successfully undertaken the operation of releasing the ladies from the room, returned to the chair next to mine. I asked who was giving the other dance that night.
‘Mrs. Samson.’
‘What will it be like?’
‘Probably better than the Huntercombes’. Mrs. Samson has got Ambrose—though of course the band is not everything.’
‘Are you going to Mrs. Samson’s.’
He gave the ghost of a smile at what he must have regarded as a question needlessly asked.
‘I expect I shall look in.’
‘Is it for Daphne?’
‘For Cynthia, the youngest girl,’ he said, with gentle reproof at the thoughtlessness once more shown in putting this enquiry, which betrayed an altogether insufficiently serious approach to the world of dances. ‘Daphne has been out for ages.’
On the other side of the table Widmerpool seemed, for some reason, determined to make a good impression on Tompsitt. Together they had begun to talk over the question of the Far East; Tompsitt treating Widmerpool’s views on that subject with more respect than I should have expected him to show.
‘I see the Chinese marshals have announced their victory to the spirit of the late Dr. Sun Yat-sen,’ Widmerpool was saying.
He spoke rather as if he had himself expected an invitation to the ceremony, but was prepared to overlook its omission on this occasion. Tompsitt, pursing his lips, rather in Widmerpool’s own manner, concurred that such solemn rites had indeed taken place.
‘And the Nationalists have got to Pekin,’ Widmerpool pursued.
‘But who are the Nationalists?’ asked Tompsitt, in a measured voice, gazing round the table with an air of quiet aggression. ‘Can anyone tell me that?’
Neither Archie Gilbert nor I ventured any attempt to clarify the confused situation in China; and not even Widmerpool seemed disposed to hazard any immediate interpretation of conflicting political aims there. There was a pause, at the end of which he said: ‘I dare say we shall have to consider tariff autonomy—with reservations, of course.’
Tompsitt nodded, biting his lip a trifle. Widmerpool’s face assumed a dramatic expression that made him look rather like a large fish moving swiftly through opaque water to devour a smaller one. Sir Gavin had begun to grow restive as scraps of this stimulating dialogue were wafted across to him, and he now abandoned the subject of Salopian pheasants in favour of trenchant examination of Celestial affairs.
‘To speak of treaty-revision before China has put her house in order,’ he announced rather slowly, between puffs of his cigarette, ‘is thought by some—having regard to the status quo—substantially to put the cart before the horse. The War-Lords——’
‘A cousin of mine in the Coldstream went out last year,’ Pardoe interrupted. ‘He said it wasn’t too bad.’
‘Was that at Kowloon?’ asked Widmerpool, speaking somewhat deferentially. ‘I hear, by the way, they are sending the Welsh Guards to Egypt instead of a Line regiment.’
‘You spoke of treaty revision, Sir Gavin,’ said Tompsitt, ignoring Widmerpool’s adumbrations on the incidence of the trooping season. ‘Now it seems to me that we should strike when the iron is hot. The iron has never been hotter than at this moment. There are certain facts we have got to face. For example——’
‘Some of them were under canvas on the race-course,’ said Pardoe. ‘Not that there were any starters, I should imagine.’ And, presumably with a view to disposing finally of the Chinese question and turning to subjects of more local interest, he added: ‘You know, legalising the tote is going to make a big difference to racing.’
Sir Gavin looked dissatisfied with the turn taken by—or rather forced on—the conversation; possibly, in fact certainly, possessing further views on the international situation in the East which he was not unwilling to express. However, he must have decided that time did not allow any return to these matters, for he made, as it were, a mystic circle before himself in the air with the decanter, as if to show that the fate of China—and of racing, too for that matter—was in the lap of the gods.
‘Nobody having any port,’ he stated, rather than asked. ‘Then I suppose we shall be getting into trouble if we don’t make a move. Anyone for along the passage?’
‘Yes,’ said Tompsitt, setting off impatiently.
While we waited for him, Sir Gavin expatiated to Pardoe whom he seemed, for some reason, particularly to enjoy lecturing, on the advantages to be gained for the country by mustering young men of Tompsitt’s kind.
‘Had the smooth type too long,’ he remarked, shaking his head a number of times.
‘Need something crisper these days, do we?’ enquired Pardoe, who, standing on tiptoe, was straightening his white tie reflected in the glass of the barometer hanging under Boyhood of Cyrus.
‘All very well a century ago to have a fellow who could do the polite to the local potentate,’ explained Sir Gavin. ‘Something a bit more realistic required these days.’
‘A chap who knows the man-in-the-street?’
Sir Gavin screwed his face into an expression calculated to convey that such was the answer.
‘Where does he come from?’ asked Pardoe, who did not seem absolutely convinced by these arguments, and still fiddled with his tie.
Sir Gavin seemed rather pleased by this question, which gave him further opportunity for stating uncompromisingly his confidence in Tompsitt’s almost congenital bona fides.
‘Goodness knows where he comes from,’ he affirmed vigorously. ‘Why should you or I be concerned with that—or any of us, for that matter? What we need is a man who can do the job.’
‘I quite agree with you, sir,’ said Widmerpool, breaking unexpectedly into this investigation. ‘Professionalism in diplomacy is bad enough, in all conscience, without restricting the range of the country’s diplomatic representation to a clique of prize pupils from a small group of older public schools.’
Sir Gavin looked rather taken aback, as I was myself, at such a sudden assertion of considered opinion regarding the matter in hand—and also at being called ‘sir’—even though Widmerpool’s views seemed so closely identified with his own. However, Widmerpool did not attempt to amplify his proposition, and circumstances, represented by the return of Tompsitt, prevented a more exhaustive examination of the problem.
In his distrust of ‘smoothness’ and hankering for ‘realism’, Sir Gavin once more reminded me of Uncle Giles, but such reflections were interrupted by the necessity of making a decision regarding means of transport to the Huntercombes’ house. The Walpole-Wilsons’ cars were both, for some reason, out of commission—Eleanor had driven one of them against the mounting-block in the stable yard at Hinton Hoo—and Pardoe’s sports-model two-seater was not specially convenient for a girl in a ball dress; although I could imagine Barbara wishing to travel in it if she had a chance. As it happened, Pardoe’s general offer of ‘a lift’ was immediately accepted by Tompsitt, which settled the matter so far as the rest of the party were concerned: this resid
ue being divided between two taxis. I found myself in Lady Walpole-Wilson’s vehicle, with Barbara, Miss Manasch, and Archie Gilbert; Eleanor, Anne Stepney, Margaret Budd, and Widmerpool accompanying Sir Gavin. We all packed ourselves in, Archie Gilbert and I occupying the tip-up seats. The butler slammed the taxi door as if glad to be rid of us.
‘I hope the others will be all right,’ said Lady Walpole-Wilson, as our conveyance moved off uncertainly, though I could not guess what her fears might be for potential ill that could befall the group under the command of her husband.
‘Aren’t we going to be too early, Aunt Daisy?’ Barbara said. ‘It is so awful when you are the first to arrive. We did it at the Cecils.’
I thought I could feel her foot against mine, but, a moment later, found the shoe in question to belong to Miss Manasch, who immediately removed her own foot; whether because aware of a pressure that had certainly been quite involuntary, if, indeed, it had taken place at all, or merely by chance, I was unable to tell.
‘I do hope Eleanor will not insist on going home as soon as we arrive,’ said Lady Walpole-Wilson, more to herself than to the rest of the company in the taxi.
As we covered the short distance to Belgrave Square, she dropped her bag on the floor, recovering it before anyone else could help, opened the clasp, and began to rummage in its depths. There she found whatever she had been seeking. Archie Gilbert was sitting next to the door by which we should descend, and now she made as if to offer him some object concealed in her hand, the thing, no doubt a coin, for which she had been searching in the bag. However, he strenuously denied acceptance of this.
‘Please,’ said Lady Walpole-Wilson. ‘You must.’
‘On the contrary.’
Dance to the Music of Time, Volume 1 Page 27