'No thanks. Look, Moti, it's about James Churchill. I've just had Lucy Hazell on the telephone and he's at her place now and as far as I can make out he seems to be suffering from… well, having some sort of breakdown. I'm going to drive over there and I wondered whether I could persuade you to come along too. He'll probably pay more attention to you than to me.'
'Oh, do you think so?' Naidu stood considering for a moment. 'I give a conversation class at five P.M.'
'That won't leave you any time. Can't you postpone it or something?'
'Naturally I can. I take your word for it it's necessary. Excuse me for two seconds while I telephone.'
They were soon on their way in Ayscue's pick-up truck. As they passed near the place where St. Jerome's Priory had been, Naidu said,
'That proceeding last night carries an air of fantasy. What could anybody hope to gain from such a thing?'
'I don't know, Moti. And I don't really expect to. There's a lot going on in this part of the world that you and I have no idea of. Anyway, the Colonel told me before lunch that Brian Leonard expects to arrest that psychiatrist chap any moment.'
'I can shed no tears over that, can you? A man all of whose feelings are malevolent. From what Max and Brian have to say of him it's easy to form a picture of a man very hostile to his fellow-creatures. He wages war on them to the utmost of his ability.'
'Like a sort of super-Venables.'
'Oh, there I think, Willie, you're being rather unjust to the gallant major. He views human beings with nothing more than a weariness and contempt for not being the vessels of perfect reason he'd like them to be. This makes him an excellent choice to supervise the training for this highly destructive project, whatever it is, that the unit exists to further. A person of the type of Best would be excessively involved with the destruction. Whereas Venables is detached. As is our good friend Alastair Ross-Donaldson, who is, if you like, at a further stage. Mankind as such makes no appeal to him one way or the other. In his eyes we're all just a lot of little points on a graph.'
'Now who's being unfair? I've always found Alastair perfectly pleasant. He's certainly got very nice manners.'
'Oh, of course he has. I don't want to be harsh to him, Willie. He's a very nice chap indeed. But his manners, admirable as they are, are purely and simply the product of his training. The finest kind of English training.'
'Scottish, actually, I imagine. But I take your point. But I still think there's more to Alastair than just shows on the surface.'
'Which no doubt would only be revealed in certain situations. Until these things come along, I agree there's a lot we don't know about people, including ourselves.'
They said nothing for a time, each thinking of Churchill. Then, when they were nearing their destination, Naidu said,
'I've heard a good deal about Lady Hazell in the Mess, but some of it sounds wildly exaggerated. Is she as promiscuous as Alastair, for instance, gives one to understand? Whatever you say will of course go no further.'
'I don't really know the answer, Moti. I've just met her a couple of times over this piece of music I found in her library. She seems pretty decent to me. She's certainly been very kind to poor Catharine Casement.'
'Yes, a warm heart is known to accompany, what shall we say?– the free granting of sexual favors. I hope I didn't sound puritanical about that just now, by the way. At the least, Lady Hazell has helped several of the young men in our midst to remove their frustrations. Or would you feel bound to take a harsher view?'
'Good God, no, I've seen too much of life. There's nothing blessed about frustration.'
'I know that all too well.'
'Forgive me, Moti, believe me I'm not prying, it's just that I come across this a lot in my work, but how do you cope with that problem?'
'I just cope. Sometimes it gets very difficult, and then I think hard to myself about a lovely girl in Ujjain and a couple of young bairns, and it becomes not quite so difficult for a while.'
'It must be different when you've got someone.'
'You've never had a wife, have you, Willie?'
'Oh yes. Indeed I still have. It wasn't a success, though.'
'What went wrong?'
'Oh, it was all my fault.'
'I doubt that, knowing you. Is this the place? It looks rather grand, I must say. In what period was it built?'
'What you see dates from the eighteen-sixties, I'm told, though there are supposed to be some bits left over from Queen Anne or so. That's Lucy coming out now.'
'A striking-looking woman.'
'I agree.'
When they had got out, Naidu saluted Lucy, then swept off his hat and kissed her hand.
