‘No. Had breakfast?’
‘I’m not hungry today.’
‘Dick; what is the matter?’ She studied him carefully. ‘You didn’t phone last night. It’s not like you to say you’ll do something, then not do it.’
He hadn’t phoned because he couldn’t bring himself to do so. He pulled up one of the small chairs and sat down beside her, and Kate thought, My God, this is it. She simply said: ‘I’m not going to put you through the wringer. Who is she?’
‘Just a girl in a taxi. I took the wrong one.’
‘Or the right one.’ She lit a cigarette, and found that her hand was trembling a little. ‘I hope she’s nice.’
‘She is nice. Too bloody nice.’
‘Does she go for you?’
‘I don’t know. I shouldn’t think so.’
‘But of course it doesn’t make much difference whether she does or not.’
‘You’re very perceptive.’
‘I know you pretty well, Dick. Don’t forget that.’ There was one of those awful pauses. Then she said: ‘I knew, of course, that you weren’t really in love with me. That’s why I played everything down. You know, madly gay. The bright conversation in the moonlight. Do you want to marry her?’
‘Yes.’
‘Then I’ve really had it. And I knew well enough that you didn’t want to marry me.’
‘I didn’t know.’
‘Of course not.’
He looked down at his hands, and wrestled with them. ‘You’re being so sweet about it, and I feel… I feel a complete and utter louse.’
‘You needn’t hate yourself. Nobody ever does this sort of thing on purpose. It might have happened too late.’
‘Too late?’ He didn’t think she meant after he’d married her.
Kate said: ‘I wanted you a lot, you know. And when people you want don’t offer to marry you… You say “respectability” is a neurosis. I’d say it was a defence.’
‘Well, if it’s any consolation I’m probably going to burn my fingers over someone who is an infinitely more devastating proposition to me than I would ever be to you.’
She looked at him with a funny expression and said ‘Nuts!’ very quietly. Then: ‘You know one is always reading, in books, about having a funny feeling inside — you know, as if your tummy just wasn’t there any more? Well, now I know what they mean. Books are funny things: they talk about a whole lot of things that don’t really register at all — until you experience them yourself.’
He said: ‘God, but you’re being so nice about it!’
The lift had arrived again and the doors began to open. Kate just had time to say: ‘Please be happy, Dick. Don’t be like poor old Seff and Angela. Don’t be mixed up about things. If she doesn’t want you like hell, get out, and get out quick!’
He squeezed her hand so hard that it hurt. ‘I will, Kate. I promise.’
Kate’s eyes were without tears. Consciously, she thought: ‘You can’t cry at nine-thirty in the morning!’ And then Manson came in through the swing-doors.
General Tripling was already down for breakfast when Sophie came in. She helped herself to mushrooms and bacon at the sideboard and took her place at the table. Lady Tripling never appeared for breakfast, her habit being to have a glass of orange juice only at this time of day.
The general munched in silence for a while. Then he appeared to notice Sophie for the first time. He said: ‘Who’s this chap Simmett, or whatever his name is?’
‘Simmel. Daddy, do try to keep your cuffs out of your breakfast.’
‘Simmel, then. D’you like him?’
‘I only met him last night.’
He raised his eyebrows slightly and raided the toast-rack. ‘I didn’t ask you when you met him; I asked you whether you liked him!’ Thick wad of butter on the toast. Large dab of marmalade on the butter. ‘I’ve never seen anyone look at you the way he did.’
‘I thought you were reading The Times!’ She knew this trick though. ‘What did you think of him?’
The general munched thoughtfully. ‘Much the same as you did, m’dear. Good manners — presentable — and falling for you like a ton of bricks. He was also frightened of me, and I always enjoy that. Mark of respect. Shows a proper humility. Can’t bear these cocksure blokes. Always turn out to be soft in the head, anyway. Pass the coffee-pot, please.’ She did so, and he poured out with care, dispensing the milk at the same time. ‘Damned awful coffee, this! Must tell Peterson. What’s his line, this chap Simmel? Does he work? People never do these days, far as I can see.’
Those little crinkles on her forehead puckered up as she thought about it. ‘I don’t know,’ she said, ‘except that he was coming out of our building when I saw him. He knew who you were. Perhaps he works upstairs, in the Atomic Development place.’
‘How’d he manage to meet you so neatly? Pick you up?’
‘Not exactly! But he did manage it rather well. He was really rather sweet.’
He looked at her closely for a second; then returned his attention to the toast. ‘Want me to give him a leg up?’
She regarded him humorously, a smile in her eyes. ‘You’re jumping to conclusions, Daddy.’
He wiped his mouth with a napkin. ‘Course I am. How silly of me.’ He got up, glancing at the clock on the mantelpiece. ‘Well, I must get to the office.’ He walked the length of the dining-room and opened the door.
‘By the way,’ he said, pausing there, ‘I take it that you brought him in the library to get some sort of reaction from me?’
‘Don’t be silly, Daddy!’ she said. ‘I’m quite capable of weighing people up myself.’
‘Yes, of course you are.’ Dismissing it.
Sophie helped herself to sugar rather casually. ‘Still, supposing I had. What would you say?’
‘In the unlikely event?’
‘In the remotely possible event.’
The general blew a few times through his pipe, then began to unwrap a tobacco-pouch. ‘Sophie,’ he said at length, ‘if you’re half the young woman I think you are, you’d marry him anyway, whether I liked him or not. If you wanted to.’ He started to fill the pipe, and went on talking without looking at her. ‘It’s a funny thing; you’ve only known him for about two minutes and I know perfectly well you’re going to marry him, even if you don’t. I don’t suppose he’s got any money, and that doesn’t matter so long as he isn’t stupid and proud about the fact that you’ve got a bit. But he obviously worships you, so I’d put him out of his agony if I were you. I wouldn’t exactly throw you out of the house if you told me he was the one.’ He struck a match, and gave her a warning look through the flame. ‘Just be sure of one thing’ — he sucked through the pipe, and the match-flame leapt up and down in a regular rhythm, until the tobacco glowed in the pipe-bowl and the match was out — ‘make sure he’s the boss. Give him confidence — otherwise he’ll be afraid of you. Then you’ll both be miserable. I’m just a stupid old general, but I think you could turn this boy into something. Give him a big pair of boots, until he grows into them naturally — he won’t get too big for them. And don’t let him ever have to lick yours. If you start him off in the right way, he’ll rapidly become what you’ve made him think he is — the Man of the House.’
Sophie pushed back a lock of hair, smiled at him. ‘As you say,’ she said, ‘you’re just a stupid old general!’
His mood reverted to the monosyllabic. ‘Want a lift?’
‘No, thanks, Daddy. I don’t have to be there till ten.’
‘What an army!’ he exclaimed. ‘The generals have to be there one hour before the secretaries!’