The Only Problem

discernibly, for different reasons. Nathan, Harvey supposed, had been told to avoid the subject of Effie. Ruth didn’t want to bring Effie into focus; it was enough that she was still Harvey’s wife, out there vaguely somewhere else, out of sight.

‘Effie?’ said Ruth.

‘I heard from her,’ said Nathan. ‘Only a postcard, after she got out.’

‘Out from where?’

‘From prison in Trieste. Didn’t you hear about it?’

‘Harvey never discusses Effie,’ said Ruth. ‘I’ve only just heard about it. She wrote to me last week from London, but she didn’t mention prison.’

‘What happened?’ said Harvey.

‘She was caught shop-lifting in a supermarket in Trieste. She said she did it to obtain an opportunity to study a women’s prison at firsthand. She got out after three days. There was a small paragraph about it in the Telegraph, nothing in the other papers; it was about a month ago,’ Ruth said. ‘Nathan just told me.

‘All she said on the card was that she was going to Munich,’ said Nathan.

‘I wish her well of Munich,’ said Harvey.

‘I thought it was a beautiful town,’ Ruth said.

‘You thought strangely. There is a carillon clock with dancers coming out of the clock-tower twice a day. That’s all there is in Munich.’

‘She has friends there,’ Nathan said. ‘She said on the card she was joining friends in Munich. She seems to be getting around.’

‘Well, I’m glad, for Effie, there is something else in Munich besides the carillon clock. Who made this soup?’

‘Nathan did,’ said Ruth.

‘It’s great.’ He wondered why Stewart Cowper hadn’t told him about Effie being arrested. He felt over- protected. How can you deal with the problem of suffering if everybody conspires to estrange you from suffering? He felt like the rich man in the parable: it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for him to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

‘One must approach these things with balanced thought,’ Ruth was saying, alarmingly. Harvey bent his mind to take in what they were discussing. It emerged that they were talking about the huge price Nathan had paid for the taxi from the airport to the chateau.

‘There’s a train service,’ Harvey said.

‘I’ve just been telling him that,’ said Ruth. ‘Spending all that money, as much as the air fare. He could have phoned me from the airport.’

‘I don’t have the number,’ said Nathan.

‘Oh, yes, I forgot,’ said Ruth. ‘No-one gets the number. Harvey has to be protected; in his position everyone wants him for something. He’s here to study an important subject, write a thesis, get away from it all. You have to realise that, Nathan.’

Nathan turned to Harvey. ‘Maybe I shouldn’t have told you about Effie.’

‘Oh, that’s all right. I asked you about her, after all.’

‘Yes, you did,’ said Ruth. She had served veal, delicately cooked in white wine. ‘You did bring up the subject, Harvey.’

‘A beautiful girl, Effie,’ said Nathan. ‘What a lovely girl she is!’

Harvey wondered how much he knew about how beautiful Effie was. He looked at Nathan and thought, He has barged into my peace, he’s taking his place for Christmas, he’s discussing my wife as if she was everybody’s girl (which she is), and he’s going to get together again with Ruth; they will conspire how to protect me. Finally, he will ask me for a loan.

‘Will you be all right up here alone in the chateau tonight?’ Harvey said with determination. ‘Ruth and I always shack down in my cottage; Ruth brings the baby back here immediately after early breakfast so that I can start on my work at about seven-thirty.’

‘If you’ll leave Clara with me I won’t feel lonely,’ said Nathan. ‘Not at all,’ said Harvey. ‘We have a place for her. She’s teething. ‘Nathan’s used to Clara,’ said Ruth. ‘He’s known her and looked after her since she was born.’

‘I don’t think we need ask our guests to baby-sit for us.’ Don’t think, Harvey said within himself, that you are one of the family here; you are one of ‘our guests’ in this house.

‘Well, as she’s teething,’ said Ruth, ‘I’d better take her with me. I really do think so, Nathan.’

‘We’ll move up here to the chateau for Christmas,’ Harvey said, now that Ruth was winding up the feast with a cheese souffle as light as could be. He fetched the brandy glasses.

FIVE

Dear Edward,

Happy New Year. Thanks for yours.

The day before Christmas Eve he turned up. After dinner he sat up late discussing his ideas on Job — he’d done some reading (for my benefit, which I suppose is a compliment). I don’t agree with you that he seems ‘positively calculating’, I don’t agree at all. I think he wanted to spend Christmas with Ruth and the baby. He would have preferred to spend Christmas with Effie. He didn’t want to spend Christmas alone with you; that’s why you’re sour. You should get a lot of friends and some of your colleagues, pretty young actresses, have parties. Nathan would like that.