The Angel in the Corner

by Monica Dickens

  ‘He’d like a Scotch I expect,’ Virginia said, knowing that Joe had been drinking whisky.

  ‘Surely.’ Mr Eldredge ambled to the cabinet by the wall. Virginia smiled at him gratefully, glanced at her mother, who was swinging a foot, and told Joe to sit on the sofa. She sat beside him, not touching him, trying not to look at him. He did not look at her. He took the glass from Mr Eldredge, accepted an American cigarette, and sat back, hoping he looked at ease.

  God, but he wished he had not come! This would be the end of him with Jin, and, now that he had seen her with her family, he did not know that he cared. Damn them, why did they have to be all dressed up like this? They might have done it on purpose to make him feel a lout.

  His jacket and slacks needed pressing. He had been meaning to have it done for days. His shirt, open at the neck, was not even clean. If it had not been for Virginia, he would not care how he looked, but Jin, she – God, she was a lady, and he could wring her neck for it. These were the kind of people he hated, the people who had things. All the years of his childhood and manhood of having nothing, being no good, caught in his throat and choked him into silence.

  He sat there like a dummy. He could see himself. He knew that he was scowling, while Virginia’s mother chatted in that high, surprised voice, making conversation, asking him silly questions, like a duchess entertaining a gamekeeper.

  Virginia put her hand on his knee. Her hand was warm and tender. He knew that she was crying inside for him. What right had she to be sorry for him? He did not want that from her. He wanted nothing from her.

  Her stepfather was genial enough, but even his good humoured talk fed Joe’s resentment. The old boy could afford to be genial. He was on the winning side. He was taking Virginia away to a life of college boys and smooth characters with fast cars. Joe was nowhere in the picture. Joe was an unfortunate mishap, who had blown in like a fly, but would soon be swatted away. Mr Eldredge offered him another drink. Joe refused and stood up, saying that he must go.

  ‘But you’ve only just come!’ Virginia’s mother smiled, as if to say: Look at him. Isn’t he ridiculous? ‘Do stay a little longer. I want to hear some more about that fantastic club. Jinny never tells us anything.’

  ‘No, I have to go. I have a date with a man in Charing Cross Road, just round the corner. That’s why I thought I might as well drop in here.’

  Joe felt more pleased with himself. That was a good excuse for having come, and it got him out without loss of face. ‘Good night, everybody. Thanks for the drink.’ Did one shake hands with these bastards? Apparently not. No one moved a hand. He got himself to the door. He had not said much, but at least he had not been rude. Virginia should be proud of him after all.

  With her mother’s eye on her, he thought that she would say good night to him coolly at the door; but when he opened it, she came out with him and shut the door behind her.

  They stood at the top of the stairs, looking at each other. ‘Oh, God, Jin,’ he said. ‘I’m sorry.’

  ‘It’s all right.’

  ‘You’d better go back in,’ he said. ‘They’ll give you hell.’

  ‘No they won’t.’ She laughed and put her arms round his neck. He kissed her as if it was the last time. He knew that it was. Virginia went back into the flat with her head up, not caring that her hair was tumbled and her lipstick smeared.

  *

  ‘It could hardly be worse,’ Helen said ‘Get me a drink, Spenser. I am the most disillusioned woman in town.’

  ‘Why disillusioned?’ Virginia asked. She saw that she would have to fight this out now, if Helen were determined to attack her right away.

  ‘I am disillusioned because I thought that I had brought you up to certain standards. You have met the right people, been to the right places. I have tried to see that you made the right friends. Thank you, Spenser. That looks very strong. I think I need it.

  ‘The right young men,’ she continued, ‘have all been there for you to choose from. You have known, Jinny, what a gentleman is, if you’ll pardon an expression that I believe you do not like. That is why I cannot, why I simply cannot understand this – this lapse, this folly, this –’ She lifted a hand and let it fall limply on to her knee. ‘I am at a loss for words.’

  ‘What word are you looking for, Helen?’ Virginia asked politely. ‘If you’re trying to say that Joe is common, you can think of another word, because he’s not.’

  ‘I refuse to discuss this with you while you stand there looking like a wanton. Go and fix your hair and lipstick. Then I will talk to you.’

  ‘Oh, look, dear,’ Spenser said. ‘It’s getting late, and I’m tired. You’re tired too, or you wouldn’t feel so badly. Couldn’t we talk about this in the morning, if we must talk about it at all?’

  ‘I want to talk about it now,’ Helen said. ‘I want to have this out now. I will talk about it.’ She sounded like a spoilt child, whining to have its own way.

  ‘In that case,’ Spenser said, coughing through his fiftieth cigarette of the day, ‘I think I’ll go to bed. This is no place for me.’

  ‘Please stay,’ Virginia said, combing her hair at the mirror on the wall. ‘I need someone on my side.’

  ‘But I don’t know that I am on your side, honey. Should I be?’

  ‘I should hope not.’

  ‘I hope so.’

  Helen and Virginia spoke at the same time. Spenser looked helplessly from one to the other, caught between them.

  ‘Must we fight about this?’ Virginia turned from the mirror and sat down opposite her mother. ‘I can’t see what all the fuss is about.’

  ‘She can’t see what the fuss is about,’ Helen mimicked. ‘Ever since we came back from Europe, and for heaven knows how long before that, you’ve been spending most of your spare time with one man. A man you had not the decency – or perhaps I should say the courage – to bring home. Finally, he barges in of his own accord. We see him. Then we know why you wouldn’t bring him home.’

  ‘What’s wrong with him?’ Virginia asked, tensing with anger. ‘What’s wrong with Joe? You did your best to make him feel uncomfortable while he was here, and to put him at a disadvantage. How could you expect him to make scintillating conversation?’

  ‘I don’t,’ Helen said. ‘I’m sure he couldn’t. You ask me what is wrong with him. Very well, I’ll tell you. You gave me the word yourself just now, don’t forget, so don’t jump down my throat if I say that he is common.’

  ‘What do you mean, dear?’ Spenser looked baffled. He could not understand this talk about being common, or not being common. ‘I didn’t see that the man was vulgar in any way.’

  ‘It’s not a question of that. You don’t understand. Americans, if you’ll forgive me, Spenser, don’t understand the difference between being a gentleman, and just not being one.’

  ‘Oh, don’t they?’ he said, not taking offence. ‘That’s interesting. I didn’t know that.’

  ‘Well, forget it right away,’ Virginia said. ‘Don’t listen to her. She’s being ridiculous and snobbish, and she’s trying to make you that way too, and you’re much nicer as you are. Oh – why are we talking like this? I hate this.’ She got up and stood with her hands at her sides, holding the skirt of the black dress. ‘What does it matter, anyway? Even if there was something wrong about Joe, what would it matter? I’m not married to him, am I?’ She surprised herself with the word. She had not thought of it.

  ‘But as it happens, there’s nothing wrong with him. He may not have such a wonderful education, but that wasn’t his fault. His mother died when he was fifteen, and his father – he was Italian – went back to Italy. Joe wouldn’t go, so he was left here to fend for himself. He left school to get a job, and then he left that job at the beginning of the war, and lied about his age to get into the army.’

  ‘Now you will say, I suppose, that he fought for my life, and I should be grateful to him. Well, I’ll surprise you by saying that I am.’ Helen looked complacent. ‘Thank you, dear heart,
for telling us the life story of Mr – Colonna, is it? Yes, I see. The Italian name. What was his father doing over here?’

  ‘He was a waiter,’ Virginia said sullenly. ‘He married an Irish chambermaid who worked at the same hotel. There, now I’ve told you. You can mock at that.’

  ‘I don’t choose to mock,’ Helen said. ‘I think it’s very nice of you to tell me, considering that you imagine, quite mistakenly, that I am snobbish. As for the young man, well, surely, it’s a very fine thing that he was able to make something of himself with so few advantages. There were many officers in the war who started with even less.’

  ‘Oh,’ said Spenser, blundering into the wrong question, ‘was he an officer?’

  ‘He could have been,’ Virginia said. ‘He was a sergeant, actually, but his commanding officer thought so much of him that he wanted Joe to take an officer’s training course. It was only bad luck that he couldn’t. Just before he was to go up for selection, his mother was terribly ill. They wouldn’t let him go to see her, so he went absent without leave, and of course that lost him his chance.’

  ‘I thought you told me that his mother died before the war.’ Helen’s eyes were crafty.

  Virginia was flustered, forgetting now exactly how the story went, refusing to doubt that Joe had told her the truth. ‘Oh, well, I may have got it wrong, but anyway, it was something like that. Let’s go to bed. I’m tired of this. Poor Joe, it isn’t fair to pull him to pieces as soon as he’s out of the room.’

  ‘I agree.’ Spenser got up. ‘Let’s all go to bed.’

  Helen remained sitting in her chair. ‘I’m not pulling anyone to pieces,’ she said. ‘I am merely showing a perfectly natural interest in someone who – listen, Jinny.’ She suddenly sounded more sincere. ‘I’ve been away for three months, with no idea what you’ve been doing. A man comes in here, and he has a key to the flat. Don’t deny it. I know he did. I heard the lock turn. What conclusions do you think I have to draw?’

  ‘I don’t know.’ Virginia shrugged her shoulders, trying to be calm. ‘Think what you like.’

  ‘I think this.’ Helen spoke with icy clearness. ‘I think you are sleeping with him.’

  ‘Oh, now look, for heaven’s sake –’ Spenser was red in the face. ‘You can’t talk to your daughter like that.’

  ‘Perhaps you should, but if you won’t, I must. Tell me the truth, Jinny. Are you?’

  Virginia looked her squarely in the face. ‘No,’ she said.

  Helen looked at her with equal directness. ‘I don’t believe you,’ she said calmly.

  *

  The following evening, Virginia and Helen went with Spenser to a party at the American embassy. Virginia did not want to go. If she did not go to the club tonight, Joe might think that she was angry about his visit to the flat. She wanted to find out whether he was angry with her for the embarrassment it had caused him, and to show him that nothing was changed between them.

  Since last night, she had a new feeling about Joe. She felt a responsibility towards him, the beginnings of a stubborn loyalty, which she was afraid would endure long after she had gone away from him for ever.

  When she told Spenser that she did not feel well, he was so disappointed that she had to agree to go to the party. Spenser was very proud of knowing the American ambassador. He wanted his family to appreciate the acquaintance. He also wanted to show off to anyone he knew at the party the family he had acquired in England.

  He introduced her to several people, but Virginia could not find much to say to any of them. To please Spenser, she was wearing one of his presents to her, a full-skirted white dress, which left her shoulders bare, and accented her young bosom; but she would much rather have been behind the bar of the club in a skirt and sweater.

  This was how it would be in America. Dressing up nearly every night in the costly clothes that Spenser would buy for her, making trivial conversation with easy-mannered people for whom she could raise no enthusiasm. Perhaps she would look interestingly sad when she went to America, and people would guess that she had left her heart in England.

  She did not think that she was in love with Joe, and yet, what was love, if it were not this compulsory attachment, which she had not sought and could not unloose?

  Helen was enjoying herself, in a dress unbecomingly unusual enough to attract attention. She talked fluently to Spenser’s friends, and wittily enough to make him proud of her. Virginia stayed close to her mother in the crowd, since she did not know anyone else, but Helen hardly spoke to her.

  When Spenser wandered off for a while, Helen worked busily on a man from the United Nations, who talked a lot of charming nonsense, and wore a tartan dinner jacket and tie, like a man in a magazine advertisement. Virginia half listened to their conversation, letting her mind wander.

  ‘I understand,’ said the man in the tartan tuxedo, ‘that you’re planning to go to the States pretty soon. Mr Eldredge has one of the finest estates on Long Island, I hear.’

  ‘I hear that too,’ Helen said. ‘You must be sure to come and see us when you get back to New York.’

  ‘I will indeed,’ he said, ‘but perhaps you and Mr Eldredge and your charming daughter would have dinner with me one night before you sail.’

  ‘That’s very kind of you, but we’re leaving in two days’ time.’

  Virginia’s mind came back to the party in an instant. She swung round to look at her mother, but Helen was talking lightly on, as if she had not said anything unusual.

  The man from the United Nations went away to get Helen a drink. Helen was turning to talk to someone else, but Virginia grabbed her arm and pulled her round.

  ‘Why did you say that?’ she demanded.

  ‘Say what? Oh, dear, have I made a gaffe?’

  ‘We’re sailing next month. Why did you say we were leaving in two days’ time?’

  ‘Didn’t I tell you?’ Helen said casually. ‘I meant to. Spenser has changed his mind. He doesn’t want to go by sea, and his New York office needs him, so we’re flying over on Friday. You’ll have to start packing tomorrow.’

  ‘I know why you’ve done this.’ Virginia kept her voice low, but the words were as vehement as if she had shouted them. ‘It’s because of Joe, isn’t it? You want to get me away.’

  If Helen had denied it, it was possible that Virginia might have believed her. But Helen was so sure of herself, so certain that she could make people do what she wanted, that she said: ‘What do you think? Of course.’

  The man in the tartan dinner jacket came back with the drinks, and Helen turned to him with a smile, as if she and Virginia had been discussing no more than the weather.

  Virginia moved away from her into the crowd, hurried to get her fur cape, and went out into Grosvenor Square to take a taxi to the club.

  Mary gave a wolf whistle when he saw her in the dazzling white dress. ‘How lovely you look,’ William said. ‘I never knew you were so beautiful.’ His spectacles gleamed as brightly as the glass he was polishing behind the bar.

  ‘Where’s Joe?’

  ‘He isn’t in tonight,’ William said. ‘I thought he was probably with you, but you look as if you’d been keeping finer company. What’s the matter, my dear? You look upset. Is something wrong?’

  ‘No, it’s all right,’ Virginia said breathlessly. ‘I just want to see him about something.’

  Mary looked over the top of the piano. ‘You’ll have to go down to Victoria then, if you want to see him,’ he said, still playing the accompaniment to his song. ‘I heard him say last night he was going to a wrestling match.’

  ‘Where is it, do you know?’

  ‘Yes, but I won’t tell you. It’s no place for a nice girl like you to go, especially looking like that.’ He took up the words of the song again.

  ‘You must tell me.’ Virginia went to the piano. ‘I have to see him. It’s very important.’

  Mary gave her his lewd smile and continued to sing softly, caressing the suggestive lyric with his slippery lips a
s if it were great poetry.

  ‘Oh, please,’ Virginia said across the empty glasses on the top of the piano. Mary shook his head.

  Virginia turned back to William. ‘Do you know?’

  ‘Don’t tell her,’ Mary said. ‘She shouldn’t be chasing after that character. He’s no good for her, and if she appears in that den of thieves looking like that, the wrestling won’t all be in the ring.’

  Some of the people sitting at nearby tables had been listening to the conversation. They laughed, enjoying the scene, and Mary winked at them and chuckled.

  ‘Don’t laugh at her,’ William said. ‘The poor girl is in trouble of some kind, aren’t you?’

  ‘Yes, I am. Please help me.’

  ‘I thought so.’ William nodded. ‘It’s not for me to say what you should or shouldn’t do. If you really want to find Joe, here –’ he was drawing a rough map on a bar chit. ‘This is where the place is. I don’t say whether Joe will be glad to see you, but that’s your affair. And for heaven’s sake keep that fur done up round your neck.’ He was staring at her bosom.

  ‘Oh, yes.’ Virginia drew her cape round her shoulders. ‘Thanks so much. You’re very kind.’

  ‘I try to be,’ William said. ‘We are all put into this world to help each other,’ he added sententiously, and Mary made a rude, sardonic noise.

  Virginia took a taxi to Victoria, and then walked behind the station to find the street marked on William’s map. She could not bring herself to ask the taxi driver to take her to the door of the Vauxhall Sporting Club.

  The side-streets were dark and dirty, with small shuttered shops, and shabby houses hiding their lights behind torn blinds. She passed one or two men who stared at her with their heads down, and three youths arm in arm, who gave her the expected whistle. In the doorway of the club, more youths were lounging. They were not talking. They were apparently not waiting for anything. They were merely leaning against the wall in a vacuum of time, staring at nothing with vacant eyes. As Virginia approached, their eyes turned to her as if they were threaded on one string, followed her to the doorway, and remained staring emptily, while she hesitated, not liking to enter the dim corridor.