The Hireling (16 page)

‘The time always goes slowly when you’re waiting, madam. The watched pot never boils,’

‘You’re quite right,’ she said, ‘but it isn’t like him to be late. I don’t usually worry when people don’t turn up: there’s nearly always some simple explanation,’

She strained her eyes as though the intensity of her gaze could draw him to her.

‘He’ll probably take a taxi,’ Leadbitter said.

‘He doesn’t take taxis much - at least he usen’t to. It’s silly of me, but I can’t help feeling anxious,’

The street seemed empty of everything except her longing for him. She drew herself up and leaned back, to get a better view.

‘I think you’d be more comfortable inside the car, madam,’ said Leadbitter. ‘I’ll keep an eye open for him and tell you when he comes,’

Obediently she got back into the car, leaving Leadbitter standing sentinel beside it. The keen edge of her anxiety was wearing off and she was giving herself up to the impersonal process of waiting, when unseen by both of them a taxi drew up at their rear and Hughie stood before her, long before her thoughts were ready for him.

‘Well,’ she said, trying to conceal her joy. ‘This is a nice way to treat a lady,’

‘Another lady was to blame,’ he said, and kissed her rather perfunctorily.

‘I guessed as much,’ said Constance. ‘May I know which lady?’

‘Yes,’ said Hughie, ‘but first we must decide where we are going to dine,’

They fixed on the hotel at Richmond.

‘And now tell me who the siren was,’ said Constance.

‘Can’t you guess?’

‘I’m not very well up in your private life,’

‘It was Ernestine,’

‘Oh, Ernestine.’ Constance’s voice trailed into indifference at the name. ‘Are you still painting her?’

‘I’ve almost finished,’

‘But you couldn’t have been painting her till now,’ objected Constance. ‘It’s nearly dark,’

‘I stayed to have a drink,’

‘Oh, did you? Does Ernestine make a good Martini?’

‘Not quite dry enough for my taste,’

‘Not strong enough, you mean,’

‘Perhaps I do,’

‘Is the portrait being a success?’ asked Constance, conversationally.

‘Oh yes, I think so,’

‘You don’t sound too sure. Should I like it?’

‘I expect you’d say it flattered her,’

‘I know I should. … Does she like it - Ernestine?’

‘She dotes on it,’

‘Oh dear, oh dear, these nice women. She is a nice woman, of course, though she’s a goose,’

‘Yes, but aren’t all nice people geese?’

‘Cheap cynics might say so,’

‘At any rate she lays golden eggs,’

‘And dotes on you, as well as on the portrait?’

‘Well, yes, I think she does,’

‘Misguided creature. It’s hard to find a silly woman nowadays, but she is one. What have you done about it?’

‘Nothing to speak of - that is, well, nothing,’ ‘I keep seeing her stretched out on that day-bed,’ said Constance. ‘It seems so incongruous, somehow. She should be upright, shouldn’t she? How long is it since you started painting her?’

‘Oh, two or three weeks,’

‘And now the idyll’s coming to an end?’

‘She doesn’t want it to,’ said Hughie.

‘Doesn’t want it to?’

‘No, she wants to marry me,’

There was a silence, during which Leadbitter became aware of a rattle in the car which he could not account for. ‘You mean,’ said Constance at last, ‘that she has asked you to marry her?’

‘We were talking about money,’ Hughie said, ‘and the way it keeps people apart - keeps them at arm’s length, I mean,’ ‘I’ve never known it do that,’ Constance said. ‘Oh, I have. … She said it made a barrier between people who were fond of each other. She’d known an instance in her own experience. She didn’t say what it was but someone had been made to suffer, through this very thing. “And I shouldn’t like it to happen again,” she said,’

‘And what did you say?’

‘I said, “Neither should I. But who would suffer?” and she said, “In this case I should.”’ ‘And what did you say?’

‘I didn’t quite know what she meant, and yet I did, if you understand me. I didn’t like to ask her, and yet I couldn’t not ask her. It wasn’t any use trying to go on painting her, because she’d broken the pose and was standing up. So I got off my stool and stood up, too,’

‘And then, when you were both perpendicular -?’

‘Then I saw that it was crucial for her, whatever it was, and I moved towards her. But she backed away, and I said, “Don’t you want me to paint you any more?” - I suppose it was a silly thing to say,’

‘Well, it gave her an opening,’

‘Yes. And then she said, “Yes please, but not just now.” I saw that she was trembling, so I went to the tray and poured out something for her - brandy, I think it was. It caught her throat and made her cough. But she tried to get it down and then she looked at me and said, “But you have nothing to drink.” I was touched by that and mixed myself a Martini - I could tell she didn’t want me to look at her. But I couldn’t drink it just ignoring her - after all she was my hostess. So I waited a moment and said, “Whom shall I drink to?” - I wanted to say something - and she said, “To love,’”

‘And then you kissed her?’ Constance said.

‘Well, no, I meant to, but she didn’t put her glass down, and said, “If we were married, would you still want to paint me?”

‘And you said, “I must have notice of that question”?’

‘I didn’t know what to say. And then she said, “What I meant was, would you still want to paint? I shouldn’t be taking away your occupation?”

‘ “Oh no,” I said.

‘ “I’m not an occupation to anyone,” she said, “but I could be a background. … the background you know so well” -and she looked round the room without looking at me. “Now if I’ve said something I shouldn’t have said, and asked a question I ought not to have asked, it’s because of what we were just saying. It isn’t my fault that I’m rich, rich enough to frighten some people off, so why should I suffer for it? But I shouldn’t want you to suffer for it either, beyond the embarrassment of saying no. And anyway it’s leap year - I have that excuse.”’

‘She must have thought it all out,’ Constance said. ‘If she hadn’t had the delicacy to ask you first, would you have asked her, Hughie?’

‘No,’

‘Because of her money?’

‘Well, that was one reason,’

‘What was the other?’

‘I’m not in love with her,’

‘But you did in fact say yes? What else could a gentleman do?’ Hughie’s silence gave consent.

‘So that was why you were late. Well, good luck to you, my dear,’ said Constance. ‘Good luck to you. Good luck,’ she repeated.

After a minute or two she said, ‘Do you know, I don’t think I’ll go out to dinner after all. Should you mind very much? I somehow don’t feel in the mood for it,’

Hughie said miserably, ‘Oh, but you must dine somewhere,’

‘No, I don’t think I need. If I feel like eating, I’ll get myself something on a tray, like women do. Please, Hughie, tell our kind driver to turn back.’

‘Oh, but we can’t do that, it’s all arranged,’

‘Yes, but all the same I’d rather. I oughtn’t to have come out this evening anyhow, I’ve got a lot of homework. You forget I’m a working woman,’

‘Oh, just this once,’ pleaded Hughie.

‘No, not this once. I’m not really in form. I know you won’t believe me, but I’ve got a bit of a headache,’

‘Then we’ll go back,’ said Hughie. ‘Leadbitter,’ he said, clearing his throat, ‘would you turn round? My friend wants to go home,’

‘Very good, sir,’

The car stopped. It was not quite easy to turn round. An unbroken stream of traffic conspired to keep them stationary. But Leadbitter was a driver as patient as he was vigilant, and at last with a sharp inward movement which flung the two on the back seat against each other, but not into each other’s arms, they started on their homeward way.

Leadbitter listened to their silence as intently as he had listened to their speech. Would they never speak again?

Whatever else happens, he thought, I have lost a customer. Hughie won’t employ me again to take his girl friend out; he won’t take her out again. And when Lady Franklin becomes Mrs Hughie, and wears the pants as no doubt she will, she won’t give any work to Leadbitter’s Garages Ltd.

Well, it was just too bad and he had only himself to blame. He couldn’t swear, but it seemed pretty clear from what they said that the one taste of love-making he had given Lady Franklin had whetted her appetite for more: he had given her the shock, the liberating shock, and Hughie had reaped the benefit.

He had been had for a mug.

Hughie said he had made no advances, or nearly none, to Lady Franklin, but was it likely? Was it likely, with her stretched out on the couch, day after day, with her hands clasped behind her head, lifting her breasts in a way that he didn’t have to imagine because he could see them before his eyes - he couldn’t help seeing them. Day after day Hughie’s paint-brush lovingly portrayed those curves; and was it likely that his hand was satisfied with putting them on the canvas?

For the first time Leadbitter knew what jealousy was: its poison paralysed his being; if he had been spoken to he could not have answered, so completely were his faculties turned inwards. Of love, the cause of jealousy, he was unaware; his hostility to Hughie seemed to include Lady Franklin, too. The pair of them! And it included Constance, whose sudden change of heart and mind, cutting the evening short, would rob him of a pound, at least. Customers could cancel to their heart’s content; it wasn’t policy to charge them for their defections, but woe betide him if he failed to keep an appointment! The customer would go elsewhere.

But his hearing did not share the turmoil of his spirit. Constance’s voice was breaking the long silence.

‘I’m sorry, Hughie,’ she said, ‘to be such bad company. I said I wished you luck, and so I do. Only I can’t quite realize yet the change it’s going to make to us - to me, I should say,’

‘And to me,’ said Hughie.

‘And to you, of course. Only for you it will be a change for the better, won’t it? Materially, I mean, and in most other ways. Whereas for me -‘

‘Darling,’ said Hughie, ‘what good have I been to you? I’ve been an encumbrance, really. All these years -‘

‘The best years of a woman’s life,’ put in Constance, mimicking a voice.

‘Well, you’ve been tied to me. You could have married,’

‘I could have married,’ Constance said. ‘But did I want to? Once, perhaps - but no. I can’t pretend you’ve robbed me of the joys of marriage. No, instead you’ve given me a great deal, Hughie; you may not have meant to but you did. I shouldn’t have stuck to you if you hadn’t. I’m a bit of a dinger, aren’t I? I’ve thought that more than once. And what have I given you in exchange? A good deal of discouragement -‘

‘Oh, I don’t know,’ said Hughie, listlessly. ‘You kept me up to the mark. I shouldn’t have gone on painting if you hadn’t kept telling me how bad it was. I’m made like that,’

‘Ernestine won’t tell you it’s bad,’

‘No, she thinks I’m smashing. … You could give her a wrinkle or two about me,’

‘I could,’ said Constance, ‘but it wouldn’t be very seemly, would it? I shall have to fade out. I feel I’m fading out already. Am I here, do you think?’

‘Yes, you’re here,’

‘I wasn’t sure. I feel like a stranger. In a minute I shall be making conversation. What do you talk to Ernestine about?’

‘I told you. About myself, and about herself, and coming back to life. Everything’s new and exciting to her,’

‘God, you make me feel old. But I don’t suppose I’m much older than she is,’

‘I shouldn’t think there was a lot in it. She’s twenty-seven,’

‘Then we’re both cradle-snatchers. Her first husband was a good deal older than she. She worshipped him, didn’t she? He was like a father to her. I fancy she would worship any husband. How will you like being worshipped?’

‘Well, it would be a change,’

‘You don’t sound as greedy for incense as an idol should. But I see I made a mistake. I ought to have worshipped you,’

‘Well, you were rather tough with me sometimes. Sarcastic, you know,’

‘Yes, and I regret it. You won’t remember it against me, will you? I should like to be a pleasant memory - that is, if you remember me at all,’

‘I shan’t forget you,’ Hughie said.

‘Well, that’s something. You’ll have a lot of new friends, Ernestine’s friends with Bentleys and Rolls Royces. An unending round of gaiety - you know what serious-minded people are when they take to social life! It quite goes to their heads, they make a religion of it. Goodness and worldliness are terrifying together. And Ernestine was very mondaine once - in the nicest way, of course. She’ll organize you. No more corduroy trousers, no more open shirts, and perhaps no beard. You’ll have to paint her as Delilah next -she would be a very thorough one - conscientious, you know, even with the shears. I shouldn’t be surprised if there’s quite a streak of determination in her, in spite of all her vagueness. As her consort you’ll have to toe the line. What’s done in Chelsea won’t do in South Halkin Street,’

‘She seems to like Bohemians,’ said Hughie.

‘Yes, in the same way that visitors to the Zoo like lions. I expect she is a lion-huntress, it’s part of her idealism. But she likes them in a cage. Yours will be a gilded cage, poor Hughie,’

‘I don’t think you’re being very fair to her,’ said Hughie.

‘No, I’m not. Why am I talking like this? Why am I talking at all? I wish to God we were home. Dear, dear, Hughie, please tell our driver to step on the gas. Tell him I don’t a bit mind arriving dead - in fact I’d rather.’ Hughie spoke to Leadbitter, and the car moved faster.

‘You’ll let me come in with you, won’t you?’ Hughie said.

‘No, darling, I’d much rather not, if you don’t mind. I really couldn’t bear it. I want to be alone - alone with the difference.’

‘Why need there be a difference?’ Hughie asked, and his voice changed so much it might have been another person’s. ‘Why need there be a difference?’ he repeated.

‘What do you mean, Hughie? I don’t understand,’

‘I mean there needn’t be a difference,’ Hughie said.