The Book And The Brotherhood

'There's nothing to do,'said Jenkin. 'Just let determined things to destiny hold unbewailed their way.'

'That's craven.'

'At the moment, I mean. Duncan obviously isn't going to make any move. And if we interfere we could just make trouble.'

'You mean get hurt? Are you afraid?'

‘Of him? Of course not. I ust mean we could mess up further Lion we don't understand.'

‘What don’t we understand? I understand. I just don't what to do. If you're saying that in this modern age adultery doesn't matter -'

‘I’m not.'

'Jean will have to come back to Duncan- I suppose. There's no life she can lead with that man, he works like a demon all day, he's crazy really – and she's a moral sort of person after all- '

‘She loves the fellow!'

‘That's nonsense, it's psychological slavery, it's an illusion. The sooner she returns the less damage will be done.'

‘You think, after a certain time, Duncan might reject her?’

‘ He could generally detach himself out of self-defence, go cold on her. Why should he suffer so? He'll drink himself to death’.

'You feel we should help him positively, aggressively if necessary?

‘If we could think how.'

'Gang up on Crimond and beat the hell out of him? He'd like it, he'd play the victim and then take a terrible revenge.'

'Ofcourse I don't mean that sort of stuff! He wouldn't like it sold we couldn't do it.'

' I wasn't serious.'

'Well, be serious.'

'We can hardly go and fetch Jean away by force. You were saying something about Tamar last night, but I didn't get the hang because Rose came in.'

, Rose is terribly upset about Jean.'

'Is she seeing Jean?'

'No, of course not!'

'I don't see why she shouldn't – we have to defend Duncan -' 'She'll do what we do.'

'But about Tamar – you seemed to think that she could somehow bring Jean and Duncan together again?'

'It's an intuition. Tamar is a remarkable person.'

`Couldn't Rose do it?'

`She's too connected. She hates Crimond. And she and Jean are so close, or were. Jean would hate above all things to hr proved wrong by Rose.'

'I see what you mean. Tamar used to see a lot of Jean and Duncan. I remember you said they ought to adopt her! Bw I don't fancy involving Tamar, she's so young.'

`That's her passport, they couldn't see her as a judge. She’s got a special integrity. Out of that unspeakable background’

'Or because of it.'

`She has seen the abyss and stepped away from it, stepped firmly in the other direction – oh how firmly she steps!'

`She's in search of a father. If you see yourself in that role’

`Absolutely not. I just thought I'd suggest -'

'Don't burden her too much. She has a very high regard for you. She'd worry terribly if she wasn't able to do exactly what you wanted. I expect she's got enough worries.'

'I think something like this might be just what she needs, task, a mission, to be a messenger of the gods.'

`You.'see her as a sort of virgin priestess.'

`Yes. Are you joking?'

`Never in the world – I see her like that too. But look -supposing someone were to say that surely in these days women often leave their husbands for other men and bystanders don't think this is something intolerable they've got to stop at all costs. Why is this case different? Is it because Duncan is like our brother, or because Crimond is exceptionally awful, or-?'Jenkin here gave Gerard a wide-eyed look which meant that he was putting something out simply I'm clarification; they had been arguing since the^y were eighteen.

'Storms gather round that man. Someone could get hurt.'

'You think Duncan might try to kill Crimond? Duncan can bide his time, but he's violent and fey too.'

'No, but he might have a sudden irresistible urge simply to see Crimond, to argue with him even -'

'And Crimond might kill him, out of fear, or hate -?'

'Men in the wrong hate their victims.'

'Or by accident? You think it'll end in single combat? Or Crimond might kill Jean, or they'd jump off a cliff together, or -?’

‘'He likes guns, you remember at Oxford, and Duncan said he was in some rifle club in Ireland, it's hard luck on him he missed the war, he'd have been dead or a hero, that would have been his aim -'

'I think you're too obsessed with Crimond's awfulness. He's a romantic.'

'We forgive romantics.'

'An ame damnee then.'

'We forgive them too. Don't make excuses for him, Jenkin!' 'You want your Crimond to be as bad as possible!'

'He likes dramas and ordeals and tests of courage, he doesn't care if he destroys people because he doesn't care if he destroys himself -'

'He's a utopian thinker.'

'Precisely. Unrealistic and ruthless.'

'Oh come – He's courageous and hard-working and indiferent to material goods and he really cares about deprived people -‘

'He's a charlatan.'

'What is a charlatan? I've never understood that concept.'

‘He doesn't care about deprived people or social justice, he dw-sn't go anywhere near the real working-class struggle, he's a self-obsessed theorist, he makes all these things into ideas, into some passionate abstract web he's weaving -'

'Passion, yes. That's what attracts Jean.'

'She's attracted by the danger – by the carnage.'

'A Helen of Troy complex?'

'She likes cities to fall and men to die because of her.'

'You are too unkind,' said Jenkin. 'Crimond is a fanatic, an ascetic. That's attractive enough -'

'For you perhaps. I think you see him as some kind of mystic.

'Remember how we all once saw him as the modern man, the hero of our time, we admired him for being so dedicated, we felt he was more real than we were -'

'I never felt that. What I do remember was, when someone said he was an extremist, he said, 'One must have the suppot of the young.' That's unforgivable.'