The Girls of Slender Means

‘Yes, it’s all gone, all elsewhere.’

Rudi Bittesch lifted and flicked through a pile of notebooks that lay on Nicholas’s table. He said, ‘Is this the manuscript of your book by the way?’

He would not have taken this liberty in the normal course, but Nicholas was under a present obligation to him. Rudi had discovered the whereabouts of Selina.

‘You can have it,’ said Nicholas, meaning the manuscript. He said, not foreseeing the death he was to die, ‘You can keep it. It might be valuable one day when I’m famous.’

Rudi smiled. All the same, he tucked the books under his arm and said, ‘Coming along?’

On the way to pick up Jane to go and see the fun at the Palace, Nicholas said, ‘Anyway, I’ve decided not to publish the book. The typescripts are destroyed.’

‘I have this bloody big lot of books to carry, and now you tell me this. What value to me if you don’t publish?’

‘Keep them, you never know.’

Rudi had a caution about these things. He kept The Sabbath Notebooks, eventually to reap his reward.

‘Would you like a letter from Charles Morgan to me saying I’m a genius?’ Nicholas said.

‘You’re bloody cheerful about something or other.’

‘I know,’ said Nicholas. ‘Would you like to have the letter, though?’

‘What letter?’

‘Here it is.’ Nicholas brought Jane’s letter from his inside pocket, crumpled like a treasured photograph.

Rudi glanced at it. ‘Jane’s work,’ he said, and handed it back. ‘Why are you so cheerful? Did you see Selina?’

‘Yes.’

‘What did she say?’

‘She screamed. She couldn’t stop screaming. It’s a nervous reaction.’

‘The sight of you must have brought all back to her. I advised you to keep away.’

‘She couldn’t stop screaming.’

‘You frightened her.’

‘Yes.’

‘I said keep away. She’s no good, by the way, with a crooner in Clarges Street. You see him?’

‘Yes, he’s a perfectly nice chap. They’re married.’

‘So they say. You want to find a girl with character. Forget her.’

‘Oh, well. Anyway, he was very apologetic about her screaming, and I was very apologetic, of course. It made her scream more. I think she’d have preferred to see a fight.’

‘You don’t love her that much, to fight a crooner.’

‘He was quite a decent crooner.’

‘You heard him croon?’

‘No, of course, that’s a point.’

Jane was restored to her normal state of unhappiness and hope, and was now established in a furnished room in Kensington Church Street. She was ready to join them.

Rudi said, ‘You don’t scream when you see Nicholas?’

‘No,’ she said, ‘but if he goes on refusing to let George publish his book I will scream. George is putting the blame on me. I told him about the letter from Charles Morgan.’

‘You should fear him,’ Rudi said. ‘He makes ladies scream by the way. Selina got a fright from him today.’

‘I got a fright from her last time.’

‘Have you found her then?’ said Jane. ‘Yes, but she’s suffering from shock. I must have brought all the horrors back to her mind.’

‘It was hell,’ Jane said.

‘I know.’

‘Why is he in love with Selina by the way?’ Rudi said. ‘Why doesn’t he find a woman of character or a French girl?’

*

‘This is a toll call,’ Jane said, rapidly.

‘I know. Who’s speaking?’ said Nancy, the daughter of the Midlands clergyman, now married to another Midlands clergyman.

‘It’s Jane. Look, I’ve just got another question to ask you, quickly, about Nicholas Farringdon. Do you think his conversion had anything to do with the fire? I’ve got to finish this big article about him.’

‘Well, I always like to think it was Joanna’s example. Joanna was very High Church..’

‘But he wasn’t in love with Joanna, he was in love with Selina. After the fire he looked for her all over the place.’