‘No style when he opens a car door,’ Fanny said.
‘Much too rough too,’ Suzy added. ‘The day before yesterday he chucked out a client who asked a married woman for a light.’
‘He hasn’t a mean bone in his body,’ Dolly said. ‘He’s just very thick.’
Madeleine made it clear that their chitchat was out of place at a moment such as this. Fortunately Jesús took over in the afternoons and worked in Jean’s apartment. Jean did not ask him how he knew, nor how long he had known. Some matters that cause too much pain need to remain in the dark, and that real friends, of however short a duration, will keep from each other.
‘I like wha’ I do,’ Jesús said. ‘One day they will lick my boots. I’m not a nasty man an’ I keep my fee’ nice an’ clean so they don’ feel too ashame’. Don’ you think I’m righ’?’
Jean nodded. In a way his own situation was similar. Art and love both suffered ignominious defeats when they started out. When dealers began to recognise the genius that was in Jesús’s collages, Chantal would realise her lover’s feelings for her. Keeping one’s feet clean? Yes, it was not a bad idea. At any rate Jean was aware that he was undergoing his first great disappointment in love, and hated it slightly less than he had expected. There would never be another one, and by its suddenness and depth this one even managed to seem quite noble, since he had survived Chantal’s offence. He wrote to Antoinette.
Chantal has run off! Who with? That is the question. Or perhaps not. Not at all. The important thing is that she’s no longer here. One day I’ll recover, and you’ll see me stronger than death itself.
All my affection, Jean
She wrote back by return.
Yes, she ran off with Gontran Longuet. She was sleeping with him at Grangeville before you came. What girl of her age could resist a red Delahaye convertible with a racing exhaust? Try to forgive her. The Malemorts, who thought you were the bee’s knees (sorry!), are bitterly offended. I’ve had a bit of money from Papa, so I’m sending it to you. The stamp was franked at Saint-Tropez. He must be keeping himself warm at night somewhere around there. Finally, another bit of news: I’ve pumped the abbé so hard that he’s given me a clue. But do you still really want to know? With love,
Antoinette
Jean felt that from this moment on, he no longer gave a damn. Chantal had gone off with that swine? She would soon regret it. Jesús confirmed it.
‘I di’n’ wan’ to say to you, but I saw him. She has gone away in a red Delahaye what was waitin’ ou’side the door. I saw the man: a very strange funny-lookin’ face.’
Thus everything was illuminated. At the concert she had been unable to resist the little world of Grangeville, and Gontran had used the opportunity to reclaim his property. Disgust works like medicine. Jean got very drunk in Jesús’s company and went out to look for work and new lodgings where the location of every missing object would not remind him of Chantal. He also wrote to Antoinette.
Is it really vital to know? I’m not so sure as I was before. Maybe it’s not the right moment yet. Later, when I’m feeling a bit less shattered. I’ll write to you.
He had just sealed the envelope when there was a knock at the door.
Palfy was there, his foot across the threshold so that Jean could not slam the door in his face.
‘Hello, dear boy. You’re not at all easy to track down. If not for Jane Ascot, we might have lost sight of each other for good. Fortunately I found your lovely girlfriends at Match. Delightful! Especially Fanny, who more than deserves her name. I’ve always been rather partial to that sort of girl. Me and the women of the world … you know. Yes, quite true. Anyway, a little pillow talk and I got your address and discovered your lady love had ditched you.’
‘Come in.’
Palfy inspected his lodgings.
‘Perfect for a gay grisette. Alas, young ladies who grow up in châteaux quickly tire of the bohemian life.’
‘I’m obliged to you for your sarcasm. I inflict more than enough of it on myself already. How are your affairs progressing?’
‘What? Haven’t you heard?’
Palfy sat down, pulled off his gloves, and calmly filled his pipe and lit it, imbuing the room with a comforting smell.
‘Bust!’ he said, smiling. ‘One fool took fright and immediately found plenty of other fools to follow his example. Front-page news for a week. Worth at least a hundred thousand sterling, publicity like that. My picture splashed all over the papers. They even published pictures of the Rolls, which I sold straight away to Lord Donovan, and the Morgan — Lady Quarry bought that. Price took a job with the Ascots. Ruin, dear boy, magnificent ruin. In the eyes of the law anyway, because you’ll remember that the idea was spectacular … The only problem was that it was unusable in Europe. So …’
He raised his right hand, pointing his finger.
‘… so I sold it to an American consortium. Three of them came over from New York, and I spent a week explaining my system to them. In their opinion it ought to be workable in New York. They offered me a percentage, but I went for ten thousand dollars deposited at a bank in Paris instead. Enough to live like a prince for six months. And when it runs out I’ll get a job digging roads …’
‘What about England?’
‘I am the subject of an arrest warrant. So why don’t we head south instead, both of us? My treat.’
‘I couldn’t possibly.’
‘Why not?’
In reality there was no serious reason not to. By the time they had finished lunch at a restaurant in the Place du Tertre, Palfy had his way. Afterwards, as they walked past the gallery that Jesús supplied with his vulgar daubs, Jean stopped. In the middle of the window stood a canvas of a naked young woman, standing in a tub and showering herself with the rose of a watering can. It was not Chantal’s face, but it was her body without a shadow of doubt: the pretty buds of her hardly ripe breasts, the downy hair of her belly, her long, slender horsewoman’s legs: and behind her the curtains of blue and white gingham.
‘Jesús too!’ Jean said.
Palfy put on his most compassionate expression.
‘Do I guess correctly?’
‘Yes. It’s getting comical.’
‘Let’s not delay, in that case. This district is bad for your health. I was intending to buy a car —’
‘You don’t steal them any more?’
‘It’s been a bit dangerous for the past six months. No. Let’s catch the Blue Train. At Cannes we’ll be able to pick up something nice and inconspicuous. We’ll go and fetch your case now. On one condition.’
‘Which is?’
‘No punch-ups with the aforesaid Jesús. I caught a glimpse of him. He’s built like a fairground wrestler. Anyhow, I cannot stand brawling.’
They met him on the stairs, carrying a canvas under his arm.
‘I’m leaving,’ Jean said. ‘No regrets.’
‘Ah, I un’erstan’. You’re right. Forget ’er.’
‘You too. Forget her. She made you suffer, didn’t she?’
‘Yes, listen, Zean, I’m a bastar’. Your Santal, I —’