‘So I was, until I met Olga.’
‘But where did you meet her?’
‘At my club.’
‘Rudolph, what a story.’
‘Well, I did. She came along in a taxi after I had telephoned to her.’
‘Oh. What was she like?’
‘Cracking bore, as usual. Talked about nothing but herself. I had to hear the whole story of how Serge blighted her life by refusing to allow her self-expression on the films. As though one didn’t know that the old boyar would allow her to do anything which brought in the roubles.’
‘She was always having tests,’ said Sophia.
‘And they were lousy. Well, then of course she is having all those books dedicated to her and pictures painted of her, and so on. But she has abandoned these activities for a very important job under the Government. First Aid Post, I guess. Chap in my club, a doctor, gave her her first aid exam. He said, “Now Princess, if you found a man with a badly broken leg and you had no splint or bandage, what would you do?’ and she said, “Take my drawers off and tie the leg to my leg.” So of course he passed her.’
Sophia saw that she must look out. She knew very well that when a man is thoroughly disloyal about a woman, and at the same time begins to indulge in her company, he nearly always intends to have an affair with that woman. The disloyalty is in itself a danger signal. She would not have supposed that Olga was exactly to Rudolph’s taste, but these things do not follow any known rules and you never can tell.
‘Beastly fellow,’ she said. ‘I see you’re in love with her.’
‘Rather,’ said Rudolph. ‘I see you’re jealous.’
‘Rather.’ Sophia got up and rang the bell for the cocktail things. ‘I say, darling, by the way, you know Florence?’
‘Yes, I’m in love with her too, of course?’
‘Very likely. Anyhow, you know she lives with us now. Well, I believe she must be nicer than we thought she was, because, whatever do you think? She keeps a pigeon in her bedroom.’
‘Does she now? I thought she kept Luke.’
‘No, no, darling, I’ve often told you. Anyway, there it is, she keeps this terribly nice pigeon.’
‘Whatever for?’
‘I expect it is her friend. I would love to have a sweet pigeon for a friend, but I must say I never would have thought it of Florence, she doesn’t strike one as an animal lover. Milly doesn’t like her at all.’
‘I call it very queer,’ said Rudolph. ‘Do you think it might have some religious significance?’
‘It’s a pigeon, not a dove.’
‘Florence wouldn’t know the difference. That’s it, I expect she is keeping it to let loose over Brother Bones’s head next time she sees him.’
‘Or maybe she saved its life. Mr Stone, in our Post, you know, has to keep down the London pigeons in peace time, and he says it’s awfully difficult because wherever you put your trap some old lady always pops her head out of a window and sets up a screeching about it and calls in the police and so on. However early in the morning, it’s always just the same. So the result is that London’s pigeons are not really kept down very much, as you may note. Perhaps Florence saw this one in a trap (they get up very early in the Brotherhood, you know), and promised not to let it loose again if she might have it. I like her much better for it, actually.’
Florence now came into the room. She told Sophia that Luke had been guided to ask a hundred people to dinner the next day to talk about Moral Rearmament. ‘It’s to meet this friend of ours, Heatherley Egg,’ she said. (Florence always introduced new people into her conversation with the word ‘this’. ‘This woman I met in the bus’ or ‘This cousin of my father’s’. It was a habit which maddened Sophia.) ‘I have arranged the whole thing,’ Florence continued; ‘gold chairs and food and so on are all ordered. I just looked in here to say how much we hope you will come to it, as I feel sure you will be interested. Heatherley Egg has just arrived from the States, and he will tell us what the President said to him about Moral Rearmament. Just the two of them (the three, I should say, because of course, there was a Third present) talked it over for nearly five minutes, and Heth says – well, you must hear it from his own lips tomorrow evening. There will be members of the Brotherhood from all, yes, I am happy to say, all the European countries.’
Sophia and Rudolph hurriedly explained that they had a very long-standing engagement for the following evening. Florence looked a bit crucified and said how strange it must seem to live in a perpetual whirl of thoughtless gaiety.
‘I call a hundred people to dinner a pretty good whirl, personally.’
Florence said she must go as she had this First Aid lecture.
‘It was her book I saw that awful old knee joint in.’
Sophia went to the telephone and dialled a number. ‘You know I really admire her for doing the first aid course, I never would have expected it, like the pigeon, and dyeing her hair. It all shows how I underestimated Florence.’ She rang up Vocal Lodge and asked Sir Ivor whether she and Rudolph might dine with him the next day. ‘There is a Brotherhood orgy here, and we can’t take it.’
‘Yes, Sophie, my darling, you may, but you must be nice to the Gogothskys who are coming, and not make poor dear Olga cry like you did last time. Promise? All right, eight o’clock then, I have to be at my post by ten.’
‘Thank goodness for that,’ said Sophia to Rudolph when she had rung off. ‘People from every European country, think of it. I mean the whole point of the war is one doesn’t have to
