"Seen what?" asked Brenda.
"Well, him, Ed, encouraging Chris to be aggressive when what he needs is a damn good smack-bottom and being told not to be so boring, and poor Ruth, you're not going to tell me being made to do all that crying does any good, 'made' to do it, four times over, and Lionel, after this afternoon the only thing he can be is more confused than when he started. And Ivor ought to stick to proper treatment and not..... And making Jake strip,"—straight to Brenda in a relaxed informal interested conversational tone—"just to humiliate him. He did the same thing to Chris two weeks ago after he'd ticked Ed off without being told to. I noticed you talking to him when we stopped for lunch, Jake—how did you hit off with him?"
"He said it was obvious I was hostile."
"Exactly. Getting back at you. But he doesn't really need that, even, something to set him off. It's just power, hurting and embarrassing and generally abusing everybody and all in the name of therapy and no one to stand in your way."
Jake offered more tea and was accepted. "I think in fairness I ought to remind you of what Rosenberg said to me when I resisted. About .... shame and guilt. You could say there was a connection."
"In this business everything's connected with everything else. I forgot why it was supposed to be good for Chris to strip but I could soon run up an explanation, couldn't you, either of you?"
"Another thing it might interest you to know is that during our chat in the lunch-break he told me his plan for Ruth. What she needs is a shake-up, you see, so when the time comes she'll be put in the hot seat and told what a bloody bore she is. A great help to be told that when you're old and lonely and frightened."
"The swine. Anyway, thanks for telling me. One more bit of information."
"He can be very plausible, though. He had me thinking it might be a good idea, and the same with Chris and Ivor."
"Exactly."
They looked at each other in silence for a moment, Jake on the corner of the velvet-covered sofa and Kelly sitting animatedly forward on what had used to be called a pouf or pouffe but obviously couldn't be these days; she reminded him for an instant of someone he had recently met, he had no idea who. Brenda had been standing by a carved plant-table near the window; now, announcing by her move that she would join the conversation for a strictly limited period and purpose, she perched on the arm of the chair in which she normally watched TV or read. Her voice was rather livelier than before when she said,
"Er ..."—leaving an empty space where Kelly's name would have fitted—"do you mind if I ask you a question?"
"No, Brenda, of course not."
"You say you, what was it, you infiltrated the Workshop so as to show it up, so that means you faked being somebody who needed therapy, psychotherapy."
"Yes, I went to quite a lot of trouble actually, but I indent have bothered, it was as easy as pie, as I said."
"So when Ed asked you to do whatever it was and you cried and writhed about and so on, you were faking that too."
"Oh absolutely."
"But you really were crying. real tears, I saw them. And you still look slightly weepy, as if you've been crying."
"Do I? Oh yes, they were real tears all right, but I was faking them at the same time. What I mean is, it was a performance that included crying. I can cry at will, always have been able to. My dad says I get it from him, he's in the theatre, he says it's all a matter of being self-centred enough. I studied acting for a year until I realised I couldn't stand the people."
"I see," said Brenda. "How can we help you?"
"Well really just knowing I've got the two of you on my side is a big help in itself. And you can both keep your ears open for anything you may hear, from Rosenberg and so on, and if I can't make it one Saturday I'll need someone to watch Ed for me. That sort of thing."
"And when you've got enough information you'll decide whether you're going to sue him or not."
"I might sue him or I might write about him in a newspaper."
"What would you sue him for?"
"Well, I'm no legal expert, I'd have to find out about that but I'd have thought one could get him for fraud. After all he is a fraud isn't he?"
Brenda said nothing to that. Jake hesitated before he came in.
"An intellectual fraud certainly. All this stuff about getting away from logic and reason which he isn't even consistent about. And 'of course' when a crowd of people tell you on instruction that you're nice you're not going to feel in the least less shy when you meet a crowd of other people you've never seen before. And whatever any of them may have got off their chests will all be back on their chests by now. 'And' he makes a hundred and fifty quid a time out of us and God knows how many other lots he runs. But he hasn't got a contract with me, he hasn't even said he might be able to help me. So I don't really see quite how we...."
"Neither of you know the first thing about it so I think it's be better if you shut up and give him a chance." Brenda spoke in a livelier style than ever. "You say you've been six times and today was our first, it seems to me perfectly ridiculous to expect any results for several months, Dr Rosenberg said we shouldn't. And there are always rumours about these sorts of things which I don't think should be passed on. And I don't care what rot anybody talks if they make me feel better and I dare say you won't believe me or think it matters but I felt really better after saying my piece even if it didn't last very long."
She got up from her chair-arm and not very quietly began putting the tea-things together. The speed with which Kelly delivered thanks and good-byes, fetched her umbrella from the kitchen, made for the door and vanished, all without appearance of hurry, impressed Jake. In the passage he had to step lively to avoid being run down by Brenda with the tea tray before her and no eye for him.
"What's the matter?" he called after her.
"Nothing."
"Oh Christ."
Again he followed her out to the kitchen, where she dropped the tray on to the draining board from a height of several inches and turned round with the speed of a wide-awake sentry. Then she slowed down.
"I suppose it's not your fault."
"Oh bloody good, what's not?"
"What do you think she wanted? Would you like another cup?"
"Yes I would, thank you. What do you mean? To get us on her side—I don't know how serious that was. Or just to have a chat."
"To get the pair of us, both of us, the two of us, the couple of us on her side, you mean. She overdid it there. No, it was you she was after."
"After?"
"Some girls like old men. I'm not being nasty, you're not an old man to me but you obviously are to her. She could see you thought the Workshop was a joke at best and didn't like Ed, oh don't be ridiculous, anybody could have in five minutes, so she cooked up this story about exposing him as a fraud and wanting our help. Sod that."
"Fancy me when she'd seen me starkers? Thanks." They were for his fresh tea.
"That probably gave her the idea. No really darling, I should say you're pretty good for your age group. What?"
Jake was shaking his head. "Just..... You see I was thinking the other day, before this business came along, girls, women would look me over a bit, I don't mean send me an invitation but at least look at me. Now they don't. Literally. Well they do when they have to, when I'm talking to them, pupils and so on, but only the minimum. Obviously the normal man sends out little signals all the time, not lecherous glares, just saying he's not against the idea. So I must be sending out signals saying I am against it, and they pick them up, without realising it of course. So if you're right, why hasn't Kelly?"