It was a curious evening and yet there is no easy way to convey the atmosphere that was generated. Anyone might have guessed that attention would be on Schlegel. Not because he was Ferdy Foxwell's boss — not everyone present knew that, so perfunctory were Ferdy's introductions — but rather owing to Schlegel's personality. It was not entirely Schlegel's profligate expenditure of energy. Nor was it his resonant voice, that made shouting unnecessary. It was an atmosphere of uncertainty that he generated, and seemed to relish. For instance, there was what Schlegel did to the wood carvings.
Schlegel walked around the library, peering close at the engravings and the furniture and the ornaments and the bookcase. When he got to the medieval wooden pilgrim that stood five feet tall in the corner, Schlegel rapped it with his knuckles. 'Damn nice, that,' he said in a voice that no one missed.
'Let me give you a drink,' said Ferdy.
'Is it real?'
Ferdy gave Schlegel another drink.
Schlegel nodded his thanks and repeated his question. 'Real, is it?' He rapped the priest on the arm as he'd so often rapped me, and then he cocked his head to listen. Maybe he'd been checking on whether I was real.
'I believe so,' said Ferdy apologetically.
'Yeah? Well, they sell plaster jobs in Florence… just like that, you'd never tell.'
'Really?' said Ferdy. He flushed, as if it might be bad form to have a real one when these plaster ones were so praiseworthy.
'Fifty bucks apiece, and you'd never tell.' Schlegel looked at the Foxwells.
Teresa giggled. 'You're a terrible tease, Colonel Schlegel.'
'So maybe they are a hundred bucks. But we saw a couple of dandy angels — ninety-eight dollars the pair — beauts, I tell you.' He turned and started to examine the Chippendale long-case clock. And people began talking again, in that quiet way they do when waiting for something to happen.
Marjorie took my arm. Mrs Schlegel smiled at us. 'Isn't this a wonderful house.'
Marjorie said, 'But I was hearing all about your beautiful thatched cottage.'
'We love it,' said Mrs Schlegel.
'By the way,' I said, 'that thatched roof is beautiful, jfind it's real, not plastic'
'I should think it is real.' She laughed. 'Chas did ninety-five per cent of that roof with his own bare hands; the local thatcher works in a factory all the week.'
It was then that the butler came to tell Teresa that dinner could be served.
I heard Schlegel say, 'But as they say in the Coke commercials, you can't beat the real tiling, Airs Foxwell.' She laughed, and the servants folded back the doors of the dining-room and lit the candles.
Schlegel's midnight-blue dinner suit, with braid edge collar, showed his athletic build to advantage, and Mrs Foxwell wasn't the only woman to find him attractive. Marjorie sat next to him at dinner, and hung on his every word. I knew that from now on I'd get little sympathy for my Schlegel horror stories.
There were enough candles on the table to make the silver shine, the women beautiful, and provide light enough for Schlegel to separate pieces of truffle from the egg, and line them up on the edge of his plate like trophies.
There was still a full decanter of wine on the table when the ladies were banished. Each of the men filled, his glass and moved along the table nearer to Ferdy. I knew them all. At least, I knew their names. There was Allenby, a young professor of modern history from Cambridge wearing a lacy evening shirt and a velvet tie. He had a pale skin and a perfect complexion, and preceded most of his earnest pronouncements with, 'Of course, I don't believe in capitalism, as such.'
'Communism is the opiate of the intellectuals,' Mr Flynn had told us in the soft accent of County Cork. 'Grown, processed, and exported from the U.S.S.R.'
The Flynns built harpsichords in a refurbished Shropshire rectory. And there was the taciturn Mr Dawlish, who eyed me with the steely predatory stare that: I'd once known so well. He was a high-ranking civil servant who never finished his wine.
The elegant Dr Eichelberger had found literary fortune, if not fame, after writing a scientific paper called 'The physics of water layering and temperature variations in northern latitudes'. All his subsequent literary output being printed, classified, and circulated to a select few by the underwater weapons research department of the U.S. Navy.
Finally, there was the vociferous guest of honour: Ben Toliver, Member of Parliament, businessman and bon viveur.
His low voice, wavy hair, piercing blue eyes and well-fitting girdle had earned Toliver a starring role in British politics in the late 'fifties and early 'sixties. Like so many ambitious British politicians, he used slogans from John F. Kennedy as Ms passport to the twentieth century, and expressed belief in both technology and youth. Toliver had long ago discovered that a well-timed banality plus a slow news day equals a morning headline. Toliver was available for any programme from 'Any Questions' to
I suppose all those 'B.T. for P.M.' buttons have been put into the attic along with those suits with Chinese collars, and the hula-hoops. But I still hear people talking about how this Peter Pan, who runs his father's factories at such big profits while expressing loud concern about the workers, might have made the greatest P.M. since the young Mr Pitt. Personally, I'd sooner dust off the hula-hoops.
'Full bodied for a Pauillac, and that's what deceived me,' said Toliver, swirling his wine and studying its colour against the candle flame. He looked around inviting comment, but there was none.
'Space research, supersonic travel and computer development,' said Professor Allenby, resuming the conversation that' Toliver had interrupted. 'Also grown and processed in the U.S.S.K.'
'But not yet exported?' Flynn asked, as if not sure that he was right.
'Never mind all that crap,' said Schlegel. 'The simple fact is that it takes five per cent of us Americans to produce such big food surpluses that we sell grain to the Russians. And the Russians use twenty-five per cent of their population in food production and screw it up so bad they have to buy from the United States. So never mind all that crap about what's cultivated in Russia.'
The young professor tweaked the ends of his bow tie, and. said,
'Do we really want to measure the quality of life in output per cent? Do we really want to…'
'Stick to the point, buddy.' said Schlegel. 'And pass that port.'
'Well, Russians might want to measure it like that,' said Flynn, 'if all they had to eat was American grain.'
'Look here,' said Professor Allenby. 'Russia has always been beset by these bad harvests. Marx designed his theories round the belief that Germany — not Russia — would be the first socialist land. A unified Germany would provide a chance to see Marxism given a real chance.'
'We can't keep on giving it a chance,' said Flynn, 'it's failed in half the countries of the world now. And the West Zone will swallow the East Zone if they unify. I don't like the idea of it.'
'East Zone,' said Ferdy. 'Doesn't that date you?'
'The D.D.R., they call it,' said Toliver. 'I was there with a trade delegation the summer before last. Working like little beavers, they are. They are the Japs of Europe, if you ask me, and equally treacherous.'
'But would the socialists support a reunification, Mr Toliver?' said Flynn.
'I don't think so,' said Toliver. 'Simply because in the present climate of talks it looks like a sell-out. It's a deal between the Americans and the Russians, out of which will come a bigger stronger capitalist. Germany — no thanks. Those West German buggers are trouble enough already.'
'And what's in this deal for us Yanks?' Schlegel asked sarcastically.
Toliver shrugged. 'I wish I could answer that, but it won't be any comfort for us British, and that you can be sure of.' He looked round the others and smiled.
Professor Allenby said, 'The official text says federation, not reunification. In the context of history, Germany was born out of a miscellany of principalities gathered around the royal house of Brandenburg. This is nothing new for them. Reunification is a dynamic process of historical reality leading inevitably to Marxism.'
'You sure use fifty-dollar words,' said Schlegel, 'but don't talk about historical reality to guys who carried a gun from the beaches to Berlin. Because you might get a swift kick in the principalities.'
