by Henry Green
“That need make no difference. Just get your secretary to ring Ann up as you do first thing in the office every morning and ask her to bring the friend along.”
“I know, and what for?” he demanded, showing his face once more, which had a look of panic.
“I just want to be friendly,” his wife replied.
“And you don’t wish me to be present?”
Diana smiled at him without replying.
“But mightn’t that seem rather rude?” he enquired.
“You could be detained at the office, like you so often are.”
“What for?”
“Oh, I’m sure you can think something up.”
“No, darling,” the husband wailed, and wore a frown between his eyes “I meant, why d’you want to see them?”
“Only I never see Ann except when Peter’s up in London. And I thought of asking her friend because Ann might feel rather strange alone with me.”
“How could she?”
“I think she may.”
“What are you trying to start now?”
“Nothing, darling,” Mrs. Middleton assured the man, with a bright smile. “Now hurry up with all that stupid work,” she said, and gathered her knitting together. “Then come to bed.”
“Yes.”
“So you will?”
“I shan’t be long.”
“No, invite them to tea here, and not turn up, I mean.”
“All right.”
“There’s a wonderful darling,” Mrs. Middleton said, and kissed him on what looked to be a puzzled forehead, as she left.
•
“This is Claire, Mrs. Middleton,” Miss Paynton announced, it seemed rather carelessly. “She just saves my life at least once each day at the Ministry.”
“I’ve heard so much about you,” Diana told Miss Belaine as they shook hands. “Ann’s been so angelic with Peter always, when he’s back in London, that I simply felt we had to meet.”
“He’s been catching salmon, I hear,” the girl said, with a shy smile.
“Yes, up at my brother’s in Scotland. Such a relief! I can’t tell you how difficult it is for children to get even one, the gillie explained to me. And he’s had five already.”
“Good for Peter,” Ann Paynton commented with an obvious lack of conviction while she accepted a cup on its saucer.
“Will you hold yourself ready for his last night, Ann?”
“Of course. As always.”
“And how about you, my dear?” the mother asked Miss Belaine.
“I think I’d love to!”
“Wait a moment and let me explain. Every holidays on his last night we take the boy out, and try to show him a bit of life. You’re sure you wouldn’t be bored?”
“I’d like to see a bit of life myself,” the girl assured her.
“Oh dear, but you must always be going out?”
“I don’t.”
“Of course in my day there were all those dances.”
“You should never believe the half of what Claire says,” Miss Paynton interrupted, in a negligent voice. “She sallies off with some young man almost every night.”
“Darling, I don’t.”
“I’m not so sure.”
“Well if you will consent to come,” Mrs. Middleton put in “we must think of a boy for you.”
“No no! Please, you shouldn’t bother.”
“But of course! Oh dear I don’t know any. Haven’t you someone you’d like to bring along?”
“I could think, of course,” Miss Belaine announced with what seemed to be studied modesty. “As a matter of fact,” she went on “I hardly know anyone. I don’t know the reason, but I do of course, know why, I mean. The thing is I hardly go out at all, I never seem to meet a soul.”
“Then that must be set right at once,” Mrs. Middleton pronounced with firmness. “A lovely creature like you. Oh dear, but of course, for the evening we’re supposing, Peter gets so shy with grown up lads just out of school, so many boys his age are like that, and if we brought one along, well I’m afraid Peter would just dry up, and not say a word. So, for this particular evening, my dear, would you say no to an older man, one of my contemporaries, in fact?”
“Why you are sweet and kind. Of course not!”
“Who were you thinking of?” Miss Paynton enquired, as she raised a piece of cake to her mouth.
“Charles Addinsell,” Mrs. Middleton told the girl, with great calm. “A very dear friend of Arthur’s and mine from the old days,” she explained to Claire Belaine.
Miss Paynton laid the slice of cake back on her plate, untouched.
“Oh you are kind!” the other young lady exclaimed. “Why should you go to all this trouble over me?”
“I want to do something for darling Ann here; pay her back for all these evenings she’s come out with us and Peter.”
Miss Paynton’s jaw had slightly dropped.
“Oh my dear,” Mrs. Middleton exclaimed to the girl, with a sweet, blank expression. “I’d quite forgot you knew Charles already. Won’t it be very dull for you if we invite him?”
“Not really,” Ann almost gasped. “I mean it would be quite all right. That’s to say I don’t mind who you ask. I so love coming always, you see.”
“So sweet,” Mrs. Middleton commented, in fervent tones. At this point her husband burst into the room with his briefcase.
“Hullo, hullo, hullo,” he cried, shaking Miss Paynton’s hand with both of his.
“Darling you said you’d be late,” his wife reproved him.
“Couldn’t resist seeing Ann again,” he said.
“You don’t know Claire, do you?” the young lady asked. He greeted this girl.
“Did the meeting get through quicker than you expected, then?” Mrs. Middleton insisted.
“Yes,” her husband answered. “And what have you wonderful creatures been up to?”
“Why, we were talking of Peter,” Diana told him.
“He hasn’t caught still another fish, has he?”
“Not yet. Now here’s your tea.”
“Ta. Ann, you look lovely.”
“Thank you very much,” she replied, in a small voice. “I’d just asked Claire, here, to come out with us on Peter’s last night, Arthur.”
“Splendid,” the man said, heartily.
“Oh darling,” Miss Paynton interrupted, in the direction of her friend “don’t you think we should be on our way, now?”
Miss Belaine seemed rather disconcerted.
“So early!” Arthur cried, with obvious disappointment.
“Yes, must you go?” his wife murmured, but it was hard to tell if she meant it from the tone of voice she used.
Nevertheless Ann had her own way quite soon, and took the other girl with her when she left.
“Well, the two of them didn’t stay long, did they?” Mr. Middleton remarked as he came back from showing the young ladies out.
“Your fault for returning so soon,” his wife responded, and seemed dissatisfied.
“My dear, I’m sorry,” he said. “We got through quicker than I’d expected.”
“Sure you didn’t just long to see Ann once more?”
“Don’t be so absurd, Di please!”
“Well you won’t have much time in the end to wait. Peter’ll be going back to school, quite soon now.”
“I say, since you’ve invited this Miss Belaine, my dear, we’ll have to find a man for her?”
“I’ve settled all that, Arthur. I told them both I’m getting Charles.”
“Addinsell? Oh dear, darling, what is this?”
“Nothing.”
“But it must be, Di.”
“Very well, then. I only thought for a moment that if you couldn’t have Ann, it was only fair Charles shouldn’t. Miss Belaine, unless I’m very much mistaken, will create almost a diversion where he’s concerned.”
“Now look!” Mr. Middleton vigorously protested. “You’ve become almost insane when that man is m
entioned.”
“And I have certain obligations to Paula, even if you don’t think so!” his wife added, in a virtuous voice.
“No, why should you do this to me?”
“What am I doing, then?”
“Oh, I know,” he agreed. “But won’t it be very awkward?” However, after a certain amount of humming and haing on his part, she cut him short to run his bath, and soon afterwards led him to it.
•
As the two girls walked away, Miss Paynton explained herself.
“Sorry to drag you off, darling, but all that was too sinister for words.”
“Why, in what way d’you mean?”
“Then you didn’t spot how Diana announced she was determined to ask Charles?”
“No.”
“But it was the reason she invited us to tea. She’s off her head in love over Charles.”
“Oh, come now!”
“She is! And if she can’t get him to take her out any more alone, she plans to use you and me as stalking horses.”
“Well, why should we mind, Ann?”
“Yet I do, darling. Oh, I could sue that woman for libel if I cared. The things she’s been to say about me to my own mother!”
“You never said.”
“Didn’t I? I expect that must have been because it all became too petty and trivial for words. Just an older woman’s jealousy.”
“I see. But I should’ve thought that might be quite formidable.”
“My dear Claire, it’s like water off a duck’s back where I’m concerned! Luckily Mummy has a sense of humour, otherwise I assure you I’d have been away to the lawyers at once. When women get to the age Di is, they’re desperate.”
“What’s so odd in asking me to meet Mr. Addinsell?”
“Or d’you think,” Miss Paynton mused “she could be having us along to divert suspicion from herself? Poor, downtrodden old Arthur could have put a word in, at last, and forbidden her to see any more of Charles, except in public.”
“I never realized things were as tense as this, Ann.”
“But my dear, it’s quite fantastic what goes on!”
“You mean they actually go to bed together all the time?”
“At least I know they try to. You wait until the first moment you’re alone with either Charles or Arthur.”
“Heavens,” Miss Belaine exclaimed, in a calm voice. “Look, Claire darling, I’ve an idea. Diana must not get away with this. Suppose you pretend to make a pass at Charles?”
“If I did, I couldn’t very well in front of her!”
“To please me,” Miss Paynton begged. “Look, I could ask him round for a drink before this party for Peter.”
“In front of you, then?”
“Oh, I could go out of the room, for a moment. Yes, that might be much better, to get you to meet Charles first, I mean. I don’t trust that woman any more than I can see the nose in front of my own face without my mirror, and she may have something up her sleeve when she asks us both to meet the man. No, Claire, look, it’s a most wonderful idea to get him to us, before. Think of her face when she learns you’ve already met.”
“But what exactly am I supposed to do?”
“Darling, if you so much as let Charles lay a finger on you I’ll claw the heart right out of your pretty chest. Remember you are my special friend, and that he’s mine, until I decide what I want with him.”
“Of course.”
“I warn you he’s terribly attractive.”
“Well don’t make me nervous, Ann. I expect I’ll get by.”
“And you promise?”
“Oh yes.”
“Because I’ll think something up. Diana’s just a viper, and she simply must not be allowed to get away with this.”
Upon which they kissed and parted. And, as Miss Paynton hurried off, Claire Belaine watched her go, with a frown.
•
After some discussion the two girls had decided to ask Mr. Addinsell to a drink in Claire’s room.
“Well, well,” he said as Annabel introduced him to his hostess.
“It’s so nice of you to come, dear Charles,” Miss Paynton murmured.
“Decent of you to take pity on me like this,” the man gallantly replied, and seemed to pay great attention to Miss Belaine’s roundnesses.
“Claire saves my life every day in the office,” Ann explained.
“Is that so?”
“Oh I don’t. But you see, they’re a queer crowd, and Ann and I rather hang together.”
“I thought you should meet Claire,” Miss Paynton then explained. “Because, I understand we’re all going to be asked on a party and I decided we might have a get together first.”
“When’s this? No one’s said anything to me.”
“Haven’t they, Charles? How remiss of Arthur.”
“Is the date fixed, Ann? Might be going somewhere else.”
“It’s one of those special do’s they lay on for Peter the night before he goes back to school. Oh Charles, you shan’t cry off! I’ve had to carry the torch alone for ages.”
“Could be my Joe’s last evening.”
“Then why don’t you bring him along, as well?” Claire asked.
“Too young.”
“Oh damn, you’re not to drop out of this now?” Miss Paynton protested. “Just when, for a certain reason, it’s become quite important.”
“Heavens, we haven’t even given you a drink yet,” Claire cried and left the room.
“Don’t you think she’s sweet?” the other girl whispered.
“I certainly do, Ann.”
“Then be very nice to her. She’s had a bad time.”
Mr. Addinsell was just saying he was sorry to hear that when Claire returned with a tray of every imaginable savoury, on toast.
“What’s so sad?” she asked, brightly.
“Oh a little thing to do with old Prior,” Mr. Addinsell said, at once.
“Your father?” the girl enquired of Ann. “And you never told!”
“Oh something’s always the matter now with Dads. No darling, it’s nothing.”
“I’ll get the drinks,” Claire announced, and left the room again.
“Please leave Dads out, Charles,” Ann demanded with spirit, in a low voice.
“Sorry,” the man muttered. “Couldn’t think of anything else on the spur of the moment.”
“He shames us so!” she almost wept.
“Now Ann!”
Upon which Miss Belaine came in once more with a second tray, a bottle of gin, glasses, lime juice, water and ginger ale.
“Sit down, why don’t you,” the young woman cried. “I must say, Ann, you’re not looking very festive! What are you groaning about now?”
“Not over this spread!” Mr. Addinsell exclaimed.
“Go on, then. Mix your own drink, why won’t you?”
Upon which the man poured himself out a very stiff gin. Into it he put a little water.
Both girls cried out, wouldn’t he like something else, orange or coca cola?
“No thanks,” he replied. “As it is, now, anyone who didn’t know would think I was on the waggon. So Arthur’s to ask us all out together, then?”
“He told me he was.”
“What did Di say, Ann?”
“Oh she just stood there when he said, Charles. In fact I fancy it may have been her suggestion.”
“Then we shall get asked all right,” the man announced.
“I fancy we will. Whether we like, or not.”
“Don’t you want to go, then?” he enquired. “I love being taken out, I live for it,” Miss Paynton explained. “Only I don’t know, but I somehow feel Diana is up to something.”
“She almost always is,” Mr. Addinsell agreed. “Oh, d’you realize, I’m so glad you’ve admitted that, Charles. There are times she genuinely frightens one.”
“Don’t get me wrong,” he warned. “I suppose she might be my oldest friend.”
“Well, what’s wr
ong with that, after all, Charles?”
“Nothing.”
“No, with what I just said?”
“I was only being loyal, I suppose. Diana’s all right. Known her years.”
“She may be for you, but if you happen to be a girl . . .”
“Very well then, how’s she behaved now?” Mr. Addinsell wanted to be told.
“Look. She had Claire and me to tea. She’d never even set eyes on Claire before. And she goes out of her way to invite her out, on this end of the holidays party, when Claire has never been asked previously.”
“I don’t see, quite, why Mrs. Middleton shouldn’t,” the girl objected.
“Di may have wanted to make the numbers even, you for Peter, with me for Claire.” He smiled at the young lady.
“Why not?” Miss Belaine assented.
“Because, my darling, I still don’t know if I should bring you in on this extraordinary imbroglio,” Ann answered promptly. “After all, I still have some responsibility towards yourself, you must admit.”
“I might be able to look after myself, Ann.”
“Yes, don’t make old Arthur and his wife into ogres,” Mr. Addinsell agreed.
“I still can’t see why she’s inviting us all,” the young lady insisted.
Charles coughed. “Aren’t you making rather a mountain out of a molehill?” he asked.
“I suppose I might be,” Miss Paynton agreed. “Oh dear, I must leave you two for a minute. Where is it, Claire, on your landing?”
“Yes, darling, and remember not to try and lock the door. It inclines to get stuck, and you’ll never get out again.”
Once Ann was gone, Mr. Addinsell turned to Claire.
“Doing anything tonight?”
“No, I don’t think so.”
“Then how about a spot of dinner with me?”
“But what of Ann?”
“I rather wanted to have a word with you about her, as a matter of fact. She’s an old friend of mine, Ann is, and to tell you the truth I’m a bit worried.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t know anything on that!”
“I wanted to ask your advice,” the man explained. “You’d arranged to go out this evening?”
“Not exactly.”
“In that case, come along, why don’t you?”
“But how?”
“Look, I’ll leave, and after a decent interval, I’ll ring up and say where you’re to come.”
“Will it be all right?” Miss Belaine wondered aloud.