Leonard thanked him and moved over to the other group. He was later to explain to Hunter that this withdrawal was aimed at allowing the doctor to comment freely and perhaps significantly on his prospective guest (and that pretending to welcome inquisitiveness or inquiry was a device as old as espionage).
For the time being, Dr. Best said nothing about Leonard. Instead, he asked Hunter how he had been and was feeling.
'Pretty fair, thank you.'
'I see that at the moment, at any rate, you're keeping off the drink.'
'As you observantly observe, at the moment, at any rate, I am.'
'But on the other hand… Would you object if we resumed, just temporarily, the doctor-patient relationship we recently conducted?'
'Say whatever you like, doctor.'
'Thank you, Captain Hunter. I was about to venture to suggest that, while it's heartening to find you refraining from alcohol, you're still evidently engaged in denying your true nature by the pursuit of women.'
'Old Lucy? Yes, I thought I might look in and make use of the facilities. Is that bad?'
'Let's call it unhelpful. It'll only produce further tension and anxiety.'
'I'll just have to learn to live with it. You're next, are you?'
'Next?'
'To make use of the facilities. Or did Brian and my other friend get here before you?'
'You should not assume that everybody is engaged in the same frantic and deeply disturbed and ultimately totally stultifying pursuit of mere physical release as yourself, Captain Hunter. I'm here for a quite different reason. It so happens that one of my patients is living in this house. She came out of hospital on probation the very same day as yourself. A case of cumulative psychic dystrophy which I think I've been fortunate enough to check and may even have partly reversed. I hope in due course to speak to Lady Hazell and find out something of how this woman's been getting on.'
'Wouldn't it be simpler to talk to her rather than Lucy?'
'It's desirable that I avoid direct contact with her. She must learn to manage her life on her own resources. I don't want her to count on being able to see friends she can tell her troubles to and generally lean on.'
'Friends like who?'
'Like myself.'
'I see. I hadn't looked at it like that. Aren't you drinking, doctor?'
'It doesn't greatly interest me in this form. I'm not an abstainer, however.'
'I suppose only suppressed alcoholics are that.'
'That's oversimplifying matters a good deal, but there is such a tendency, yes, speaking broadly. I enjoy a glass of wine with a meal, a good brandy after. In fact I've a small but not ill-chosen cellar in my quarters. Which reminds me. This young man I'm entertaining to lunch next week. Is he a friend of yours?'
'Well, none of us have known one another very long, but I've seen a good deal of him over the last month or so. Why?'
'He seems to me a little… anxious. Does he strike you as a well-balanced, well-integrated personality? A lay opinion based on direct contact can be useful.'
Hunter said nothing for some seconds. Dr. Best looked at him with a smile.
'Why are you hesitating, Captain Hunter?'
'I'm not hesitating, I'm trying to make sure I answer your question accurately.'
'As you may have heard, students of the human mind set most store by a spontaneous, top-of-the-head reaction, but now that the opportunity for this has been lost, you may as well take your time.'
'I've taken it now. My opinion, for what it's worth, is that Brian Leonard is a completely stable sort of chap. He likes his work and as far as I know he's good at it. Socially he's a little shy, perhaps, but gregarious enough. Not a drinker, not a solitary, not a depressive. If you're looking for a lunatic, Dr. Best, you're wasting your time with Brian.'
'You speak with a good deal of warmth, Captain Hunter, more perhaps than the occasion would seem to warrant.'
'I don't know about that. I'm getting pretty tired of all this not being able to take anything at its face value and seeing everyone as a case of something or other.'
'Or could it be that your partisanship for Captain Leonard springs from some part of your mind that sees him as potentially… more than a friend?'
At this Hunter laughed so much that he slopped his drink and had to cling to Dr. Best's shoulder for support. He took out a handkerchief and wiped his eyes. When he spoke next it was with none of the suppressed or open animus towards the doctor he had shown so far.
'It's probably jolly sinister to laugh as much as that,' he said, 'but I simply couldn't help it. Well, that rounds things off nicely. Now I must insist that you break your rule just this once and take a drink. Come and join the others.'
Dr. Best seemed quite touched at being thus invited. He allowed himself to be led across the room and given a gin and tonic-a weak one, as stipulated. He listened to the ensuing talk with great interest.
Using a rather peevish tone, Leonard was saying to Ross-Donaldson, 'Aren't we sort of hanging about a good deal? How long can Churchill have been… upstairs by now? At this rate I'll be-'
