'It's odd, said Emma, when he had moved away from her. 'I always thought I should faint if I were ever face to face with you again, but I seem not to have. I feel quite ordinary. It's just that we can't talk to each other. It's a meeting in Hades.
Hugh felt a humble gratitude to her for having at least expected to be moved. He said in a gentle voice, 'We'll soon be able to talk. Just keep going.
Her face had sharpened with the years. It was more fierce and hungry then he remembered it, and the red-rimmed eyes showed luminous yet darker. Her hair seemed to have dried and stiffened into an iron-grey frizz. But already he was forgetting what she had looked like before, and the pale ghosts of familiar images fled like leaves before the wind.
'I'm not sure that I shall let you stay as long as that, said Emma.
'I'm not sure that I want to talk to you. My curiosity is almost satisfied now. I don't want to discuss the past. I wonder why you came? Hugh paused. He could not find the right Word. 'Need, he said. 'What? Do speak up.
'Need.
'Rubbish, said Emma. She sipped her drink and made a wry face. 'Why did you come to Fanny's funeral? said Hugh.
'A final act of brutality.
'Rubbish. Emma smiled briefly. She said, 'Can't you see I'm an old dry object like a stuffed alligator? A voice comes out, hut the thing is hollow really. It's no good looking for a soul inside me now.
Hugh was more pleased than otherwise at her expression of melancholy. He realized that he had dreaded to find her satisfied, to find her with some rounded perfection of her own, to find her contented. He said, 'Come, come, don't be so gloomy! There's plenty to do yet.
'You were ways a sort of ninny, Hugh' said Emma. I see you are as silly as ever. You still have no sense of humour. It's one of your charms, a sort of imitation innocence. Now tell me why you came.
'I told you. I couldn't stop thinking about you and it was necessary to see you.
'Well, you've seen me.
'I hope you will— permit this to be — the beginning of a friendship, said Hugh. He had said these words to himself before; now they sounded abstract and out of place.
'A friendship? said Emma. She seemed to hold the word up between her finger and thumb. Then she said morosely, 'You don't know what you're talking to. Then, 'You must have run into Randall and Lindsay just outside.
'Yes, said Hugh. He had completely forgotten about his son and was not pleased to be reminded. 'Yes. The girl is your secretary, Lindsay Rimmer?
'Yes. That's her. And that. Emma pointed to two photographs propped up on her desk. 'Isn't she perfectly gorgeous?
Hugh recognized the thick plaits of hair, the wide-set eyes, and the amused expression which now struck him as a sort of complacent insolence. 'Mmm. Do you see much of Randall? 'He practically lives here. Because of darling Lindsay of course. But you knew?
'No, said Hugh. He was surprised and annoyed and chilled as if the temperature of the room were sinking steadily. 'Why ever should I know?
'I can think of a reason or two, said Emma. 'Anyway, you must be the last person to hear. Yes, they're quite devoted. She said it with a sort of icy brutality, watching Hugh as if for signs of pain.
'I supposed he had — a mistress in London. I didn't know who it was.
'Oh, but their relations are entirely chaste! said Emma. She said it with a viperous satisfaction, watching beady-eyed for its effect on Hugh.
Hugh's annoyance began to fix itself on Emma, and as he glared at her veiled sardonic face he felt with a certain zest more present to her, as if some more of him had arrived. 'I'm shocked to hear it, he said. 'That makes it worse.
'Why, pray? said Emma. She was hunched, pleased, curled like a snake in a hole.
'I don't know, said Hugh. 'Surely you understand what's involved? Randall's wife is made wretched —
'And all for nothing? Oh, but it's not for nothing. It's for something beautiful. .
'Is Lindsay in love with him?
'She loves us both.
'But you know about Ann?
'I've never permitted Randall to discuss his wife with us. That wouldn't have been right. She said it with an air of self-righteousness which was clearly designed as a provocation.
Hugh stared at her, bewildered and fascinated. He felt himself confronted with an entirely unfamiliar moral world, a world which seemed to have its own seriousness, even its own rules, while remaining entirely exotic and alien. Yet the experience itself, the puzzlement, the sense of danger, the shock, that was familiar; and it came to his mind how much of Emma's fascination had lain for him in her moral otherness. She had composed even the simplest scene quite differently. This had seemed to him her dangerousness, but also her originality, her freedom. And he had then been aware with a little thrill of excitement that this novelty of vision was related to something in her character which was dark, perhaps twisted. He had, in the interim, forgotten. He had withdrawn those darker colours from her image.
As he now, hastily and imprecisely, began to restore them he felt something move within him. It was, surely the old love, the real one. 'Randall has behaved beautifully, said Emma. She gave a high-pitched laugh.
He had forgotten that laugh. 'I don't understand you, he said, 'and I certainly don't understand what Randall thinks he's up to. Are you fond of my son?
'I love him, said Emma, with studied simplicity.
Hugh looked at her clever mysterious face. What was she thinking about him? He hardened his expression. She must not yet see his melting bewilderment, but only that he was still capable of fighting with her. He hated the idea of Randall's frequentation; and as he felt the old alarming thrill he measured with dismay the implications of Randall's being, so mysteriously but so authoritatively, around. He said, 'Will you come over to my flat soon, tomorrow perhaps, and see my Tintoretto? You've never seen it, have you? I got it after we — parted. It's a very fine one. He wanted their speech with each other to become simple.
'See your Tintoretto forsooth, said Emma. 'I shouldn't think so.
I mean, I shouldn't think I'll come.
'Don't torment me, Emma, said Hugh. He said the words dryly enough. He had said them before, and in wilder tones.
'How far you have come and how quickly! she said with her shrill laugh. 'You surprise me — and yet you don't. Do you realize we haven't talked to each other for twenty-five years? And you behave as if we were two people who were acquainted.
'But it doesn't matter, does it? It's impossible to believe it's so long.
We patently are acquainted.
'Twenty-five years matters. I can hardly think of anything that matters more, she said sharply.
'Be simple with me, Emma, said Hugh. 'Help me. Coming to see you like this I am put in the position of a fool. You must be merciful to me. He had often spoken to her like this in the old days.
She shook her head. 'God put you in the position of a fool, my dear.
And as for simplicity, I am being ever so simple. Honour satisfied. Curiosity satisfied. Time to go, Hugh.