— Ex excuse me just a moment sir, I’m sorry Mrs Joubert those are the wrong papers you needn’t read… pardon? Yes sir she’s here now, she just stopped in to sign the… if that’s all yes sir I’ll take care of it with Frank Black… I will yes sir, goodbye. I’m terribly sorry Mrs Joubert, I went through the Nobili file in a hurry and, is something funny?
— The word ethical there, it’s just so utterly grotesque….
— No well of course that’s a, it’s only a term they use to distinguish prescription drugs… he recovered the papers from her, — and this really has nothing to do with…
— It has nothing to do with anything why am I reading it! Every time I come in I’m given something to read I don’t understand something to sign I don’t even…
— Yes well you see, Mrs Joubert, excuse me for interrupting you but some time ago, you see, a small company we had acquired because of its attractive patent position in the pharmaceutical field was negotiating a very substantial contract with the military due to the steady upsurge in demand by veterans’ hospitals and ah, at any rate these negotiations were suddenly broken off when an Italian firm came in with a far lower bid, since Italy is not a party to our patent agreements you see, and this Italian drug firm had simply pirated the patents on which our entire…
— Oh you do! pick things apart till no one can recognize them, I ask you about Francis and you talk about patents, I ask Lucien and he…
— Yes but don’t you see, Mrs Joubert, I simply wanted to give you the background because under the circumstances your father’s position in the government makes it a rather awkward moment to consider bringing suit since the validity of the patents themselves is, I won’t go into those details but these papers, you see, simply involve you in your capacity as a trustee of the foundations into which your father’s various holdings were placed when he joined the government, in order to allow us to handle this particular situation by making some accommodation with this Nobili firm, this Italian drug firm, in which as you probably know your former, Mister Joubert, is a principal. As an Italian firm, actually it’s Swiss based of course, Nobili is…
— In Geneva? It’s in Geneva?
— Yes but simply in terms of…
— Going to school in Geneva, that’s what he was talking about isn’t it, putting Francis in school in Geneva.
— Did he say that? When did you see him.
— Last night. She’d opened her purse again, getting her handkerchief. — I didn’t see him really, we just talked for a moment.
— He called you?
— No not on the phone, no, I just meant it was dark. I was in bed when he came in and we…
— He, when he came, into your bedroom?
— It’s his really, of course. She blew her nose. — His apartment, the only times I…
— But, I don’t quite understand… he turned in his chair to face her, drawing his small dulled black shoes close as he might have done placing them empty away in his closet. — You don’t still live together?
— Of course not.
— I don’t mean to be, to be indelicate Mrs Joubert but, in bed, you were in bed in his apartment?
— Why yes I’d, when Francis is down, it’s our arrangement when Francis is down from school.
— I’m afraid I still don’t quite understand.
— Simply we haven’t wanted to upset him. We simply, until everything’s definite there’s no reason Francis should be upset prematurely and so we simply, we simply want him to have a feeling of security as long as he can that we, that his parents live together like any parents that, that he has a home…
— I see. The ah, you must realize the ah…
— The what, the impropriety?
— I meant the ah…
— Oh nothing happens, in the bedroom? Nothing happens if that’s what you mean Mister Beaton.
— Ah. But you see Mrs Joubert it isn’t, it’s not simply a question of your actual ah, any actual…
— They’re separate beds after all Mister Beaton, last night in fact, she cleared her throat without looking up, — last night Francis slipped into bed with him and, and slept there all night with him…
— No but you see… he cleared his throat, — I’m afraid you still don’t understand Mrs Joubert, simply by returning voluntarily to his ah, I take it it is voluntarily, to his…
— I’ve just finished saying it’s, yes the arrangement we’ve…
— Yes but you must realize that if he, if Mister Joubert wished to make it appear that he, that you ah…
— He can’t make it appear anything Mister Beaton! he, he wants it cleared up as much as I do he’s mixed up with some, you probably saw her picture in the papers when she was still dancing not the one I saw this morning of course with a, an inscription his coq rouge in an inscription no, but…
— Yes I, I see yes incidentally does, is your father aware of this arrangement you have with Mis, with Francis’ father?
— Daddy? I don’t know, I haven’t the faintest idea what he’s aware of, it might embarrass him is that what you mean? if something unpleasant got in the papers? The way he’s aware of Freddie when Freddie gets out and the rest of the time he’s…
— No please Mrs Joubert I didn’t mean he, that was he on the phone just now I meant to tell you yes…
— Oh?
— He asked me to give you his best wishes yes, he…
— He knew I was here?
— Yes I told him you’d come in to, excuse me. Hello…? It’s Mrs Selk I’d better, yes hello? Good morn… pardon? Yes sir, ma’am yes ma’am… I see yes ma’am have you talked with Boody hersel… no ma’am I… Yes ma’am have you talked with Mis… yes ma’am possibly if Mister Moncrieff himself called the Greek Emba… the Greek Embassy yes ma’am he might be in a better position to… Yes ma’am I… yes ma, hello? hello…?
— Boody?
— Yes she ah, apparently she’s been arrested again… he replaced the phone, — she was stopped at the Greek frontier and charged with carrying I’m sorry, hello? Bea oh yes ma’am I… no ma’am no I… No I didn’t no ma’am no sometimes the switchboard just cuts in and discon… no ma’am no I don’t know anyone on the switch… but yes but all of them ma’am? It’s quite difficult to find experienced op… yes ma’am… yes ma’am immed… Yes ma’am but of course the police themselves should… yes ma’am but of course the insurance company has its own investiga… Yes ma’am but I might suggest if Deleserea has been missing only since last evening there may be a possib… yes ma’am… yes ma’am immed… hello? hello…? he held it away, brought it back to his ear — hello…? and hung it up slowly — she, now she thinks Deleserea has disappeared with a diamond brooch…
— I wouldn’t blame her at all, I can’t even blame Boody for carting drugs into Greece she’s…
— Not this time no they’ve charged her with carrying incendiaries, incendiary bombs, we just got her out of Nepal and I think your father is beginning to…
— Be aware of Boody?
— Mrs Joubert please I, I think your father has been quite patient, he…
— Patient…! she turned pages, — now where am I to sign.
— On the last page where it says, yes down there…
— He’s been patient with Freddie for what, ten years? as long as Freddie’s where he can’t bother him.
— But under the circumstances Mrs Joubert, I think your brother is prob…
— Does Daddy ever visit him? she pulled off her glasses looking up, — ever?
— Well I… he cleared his throat, reached for the papers — are you able to visit him often?