“Some holding of yours take off?” asked the old fellow.
“No,” said Gurney. “I don’t fool around with the market. Just a little project that worked out.”
The old man sat down in an armchair, lit his pipe, and seemed to be settling in for some amiably craggy early-morning chitchat. But Gurney merely thanked him for being so tolerant and walked out to the beach. He thought about the show, particularly that critical meeting at which Undertag, Toileau, and especially Hartog, with a silent plea in his eyes, had all looked over at Gurney for a sign of some fight, some fire in his belly—and he had been unable to help them.
There was no question he had let Hartog down badly. Perhaps if he had rolled up his sleeves and dug in during the last stage, the two of them might have brought it off after all. It occurred to him that perhaps all achievement that really mattered was tested by adversity. Were the participants worthy of the potential rewards? No doubt Catullus had pondered the question. He hadn’t actually read Catullus, but Catullus was certainly on his list.
What was clear to Gurney was that he had failed to come up to the challenge.
Or maybe his future all along had been in heroic couplets.
Bad person or not, he felt a certain lightness as he raced off to tell Angela the news. He knew she would be good-natured about the early morning wake-up, though she’d look a little puzzled for a moment. But she would be entirely cheerful, as if it were perfectly reasonable to start the day a couple of hours earlier every once in a while. He loved that quality of hers. She certainly was easy on the nerves. He would really get to enjoy her now, probably for the first time—now that the show he had loved working on in Philip Undertag’s office, adored in Winslow, and come to hate in Holliman, had had the last nail pounded into its brave and zesty little coffin.
Postscript
Telegram received by Paul Gurney, several months later.
Dear Paul,
Caught closing performance of Violencia in Holliman. Most anxious to purchase film rights. If available, please have your representatives contact me as soon as possible.
With every good wish,
Hunt Feur,
President, Bauhaus Productions
P.S Am sending small Henry Moore sculpture as gesture of esteem.
Violencia! Page 21