‘What about a doctor?’
‘Oh, they had one in hours ago, Max.’
‘What did he say?’ Angela said, getting finally in on this story at last. And Julia, realizing, felt she ought to explain, and while she was explaining thought she would pass over what the doctor really said about Miss Fellowes, they would only laugh when they heard and Max would pay no more attention. ‘Well, you see, Angela darling, Claire did not want anyone to know, you know how people are that way. Anyway,’ she said, lying, ‘I believe this aunt of hers asked Claire not to say one word to anyone; you see she felt she had been trouble enough already, Max had been perfectly sweet and taken her a room. She did not want to be any more bother, did she, because after all we are supposed to be going off on our holiday, aren’t we? But still, Max, my dear, there it is and I thought you ought to know. As a matter of fact the doctor was very worried about her.’
‘What did he do?’ said Max.
‘What did he do?’ she echoed, ‘why, what do doctors do? Of course he got his fee, Robert paid him, but you know what they are; he went away again; she might die for all he cared.’
‘Where is Robert?’ he said. He could not bear it if anyone in any party of his paid for anything.
‘Downstairs in the bar. Why?’ she said.
‘Can’t have that, you know.’
‘Oh, Max, you are sweet!’ she said, ‘but really, after all, it is his own aunt and she was not in our party; really she’s got nothing to do with you.’
Amabel asked herself why then come to bother him about this old trout, and then told herself she knew.
‘Can’t have it,’ he said cheerfully, as people do when they are living up to their own characters.
‘Darling,’ said Amabel, ‘don’t be so like yourself.’
‘I wish you would help,’ Julia said and then thought why not put it on to Claire. ‘Poor Claire,’ she went on, ‘she is so worried.’
‘What’s that crack for?’ he said to Amabel.
‘What crack?’
‘Don’t be so like yourself or something?’
‘Oh, nothing,’ she said and smiled up at him as if he enormously amused her.
‘Well, if that’s all,’ he said still looking at her, ‘then I’d better go see what can be done.’
‘But I mean,’ said Angela, and they all turned surprised for they had forgotten her, ‘I mean would Claire like that? I thought she wanted nobody to know,’ she said with malice.
‘Claire’s upset, poor darling, it’s horrible for her,’ Julia explained and at this moment Alex came back in again.
‘There’s no one anywhere like your Toddy,’ he said to Amabel and looked tremendously pleased. ‘The things I’ve found out about you, you’ll never be able to be quite the same to me again with all I’ve got on you now. Really Am, it’s fantastic, you can’t imagine, I mean it makes coming and all this waiting worth while. Not of course that it isn’t heaven our all being here together and all that, only there is so little to do, but have baths and gossip. Why, what’s the matter, it’s nothing I’ve said or done is it? You all look as if you’d been at one of my uncle Joe’s board meetings.’
‘It’s about Claire’s aunt, this Miss Fellowes. She’s very ill.’
‘I know all about it, Julia, you told me ages ago and tried to be frightfully mysterious about it.’
‘I’m very worried about her.’
‘I’ll bet you aren’t really,’ he said, ‘and if she’s going to die, even, what difference—’
‘Oh, no, Alex,’ she said.
‘—does it make to you?’ he went on, and she said ‘Alex, no, no,’ again. ‘Well,’ he said, ‘we’ve all got to come to it some time, though why it should be here of all places I can’t imagine.’ While he was talking Miss Crevy looked at him with loathing. ‘Oh, I know,’ he went on, ‘I know she’s not so bad as all that but I don’t care anyhow and I advise everyone to feel the same. Otherwise I shall go home,’ he said, blushing with anger all of a sudden, ‘yes, and I shall advise everyone to do the same. We all fuss too much.’
‘Really, Alex,’ said Julia and was staggered, ‘what has come over you? I don’t think you are being very polite, are you?’
‘When is he ever?’ said Miss Crevy.
‘Yes,’ he said, quickly recovering himself, ‘like the cornet player said at the Salvation Army meeting, “I’ll, give you one more ‘oly ‘oly ‘oly and then I’m off ‘ome.”’
They did not know what to make of this so Max said ‘Good for you, Alex,’ and Amabel said to him, ‘Darling, tell me something very nice.’ At this Alex smiled, sat on the arm of her chair and turned round to look into her face. She smiled sideways at him and as always when she smiled so far as he was concerned it was so brilliant it made him shy. She then reached out and with one long vermilion finger-nail she began to scratch gently at one of his knuckles, for she liked making him shy, he who was not supposed to care about girls. He thought how much cleaner her wrist was than his hand it lay across and how much stronger it looked than you would expect, but then of course she was probably extremely powerful and he always had thought women were more powerful than men. And so, as she scratched gently she began to gain power over him and he felt himself slipping away she did it so well, just right, so that if he had been her pussy cat he would have purred. He was going to shut down his eyes and give himself over to sleep, it was stretching up over him from his hand when he lazily thought he must look ridiculous and this at once went through him as if he was being rung up so that he hung up on her, drawing away out of reach. For two minutes she went on gently scratching at the chair arm. It was embarrassment on his part, he was afraid he would be made to look foolish and she knew this very well. She went on smiling at him without any change of expression and still sideways, almost as though what she had begun with him she had put over on herself as well.
The others went on talking, Max was quite forthcoming now, and as no one paid them any attention he thought what a pity, and this was what she meant him to feel, why if he was left on a desert island with this girl he would only count what nuts there might be on those spreading awkward palms for fear monkeys should see him. Not looking at her he put his hand out again and having won she laughed and only patted it once and then turned to those others again. He laughed and said:
‘I missed my chance.’
She turned back to him for an instant and he saw from her eyes she was not bothering any more about him. When she did not smile her eyes were not so blue but now she smiled, patted him once again, and finally left him though he had only to stretch out to take hold of her dressing-gown and she was wearing nothing underneath.
‘I always do,’ he said, but she did not come back so he tried one last time, ‘miss my chance,’ he said, but it was no good and he gave up trying. He did not see that she had kept him with them, not knowing whether he really meant to go home. Her purpose was to keep them round her to show herself off in front of Max.
‘No,’ Max was saying, ‘particularly now that Claire has her aunt down with something I don’t see how we can go home. No need for you others to stay, of course; and for the matter of that there’s nothing to be done about her, is there? But I ought to stay.’
‘But, Max,’ said Julia, ‘as Evelyn said while we were outside, it’s all very well talking of going home, but they won’t keep the train waiting when they do send it off just for us to come and catch it. If anyone goes they’ll miss it.’
‘I’m sorry, everybody, it was my idea about waiting at home,’ Alex said, ‘but I was in a filthy mood. I didn’t mean it.’
‘What I mean is,’ said Max, ‘I could have you rung up if you all went back to my flat. They would let me know when they were going to send our train off in time to get you here.’ And as he said this he was well aware that Julia’s uncle was a director of this line but he liked better to make out they would do all this for him. However, Julia agreed with Evelyn, and felt so strongly about it she almost made a scene. She said if they once left they would never get back again and she described how much thicker it was the way she had come than it really had been and made so much fuss they had to give in largely out of a loyalty all felt to her moods, all that is except Miss Crevy. When she had had her way she said why didn’t they get Claire and Evelyn to leave Miss Fellowes and come along to join them, surely they could risk that, she could not be so bad those old nannies could not see to her. Max approved of this and went to fetch them.