Now it was settled they should go and that Claire would come with them in spite of Miss Fellowes, Julia went back to Max expecting to find them getting ready. Amabel had gone to dress but those others had opened the windows and were leaning out. She went behind Max and said, ‘Don’t move, it’s me,’ and willed her leg where it touched his to tell him she was glad.
Looking down they could see which platforms had already been opened, for at the gates a thin line of people were being extruded through in twos and threes to spread out on those emptier platforms. Separated there they became people again and were no longer menaces as they had been in one mass when singing or all of their faces turning one way to a laugh or a scream. She could even smile at them, they were so like sheep herded to be fold-driven, for they were safe now, they could be shepherded into pens and journey back to food, home, warmth and sleep. Again, if they had broken in below, which she was ready now to disbelieve, they would slowly begin to drain away again, their tide had turned and when they raised one last cheer as the first train went out she swallowed she was so afraid she was going to cry. Dear good English people, she thought, who never make trouble no matter how bad it is, come what may no matter.
Max turned away when he had seen enough, and probably because she had given up watching and had been looking at the back of his head and had been loving him, so because she had been feeling for him when he should have been loving her without her having to do one thing about it, then she began to try and worry at him again.
‘Well,’ she said, ‘here we all are, why don’t we go?’
‘Am’s not ready yet,’ he said.
‘Then hadn’t you better tell her to hurry up. They won’t keep our train back for us while we dress, you know.’ He said they had told him there was not that much hurry and put his arm through Julia’s once more.
‘But how,’ she said, ‘how on earth when we do go do we get through all those people there are still down there, can you tell me that?’
‘They said they would take us along this floor through the hotel and then the office till we can get down by a lift on to the place they keep for visiting big noises, where they receive them you see.’
‘Oh, Max, as though they held receptions for noises,’ she said, but he did not laugh, he never laughed at himself. Besides he had just surprised himself regretting that Amabel was coming with them.
When she had first come in it was guilt had made him so worked up about her but this feeling had gone when he saw how she was working on him until he had begun to feel his influence over her and had become indifferent, so that he did not care if she went or stayed. Finally, back to Julia as he was now and with Angela Crevy in reserve he would much rather Amabel stayed behind. Besides there was Embassy Richard. He could not stand him.
‘Where’s Embassy Richard?’ he said. ‘Has anyone seen the man?’
They all exclaimed at this and Alex, who had come back when he found Robert Hignam, turned round from his window where he had been leaning out.
‘Richard?’ he said, ‘where?’
‘Someone said so. I haven’t seen him.’
‘Why then,’ said Alex, ‘we can ask him straight out if he did write that letter.’
‘And d’you suppose he’d really tell you?’ said Miss Crevy.
‘No, I know,’ he said because he now wanted to be amiable, he thought he had gone rather far before, ‘I suppose he wouldn’t.’
And so everything now hung on Amabel, as it had done earlier when she was not there for even then she had remote control over Max so that he might have been some sort of a Queen Bee. At first he had hidden himself from them because he could not but feel guilty about her and then when they had found him he had still been hiding; his fun such as it was at that time had been stolen as he had known she would find him out. Now that she bad found him he wanted fun and no longer cared how he got it, but one cannot break into houses when in the station cell and she had the key. So he wondered if he could get Richard to come along with them to keep her occupied. And now she came back in again.
‘Where is he?’ he said. ‘I’d better find him,’ and he left Julia to telephone.
‘But, darling,’ she said, following, ‘I thought you hated him.’
‘No, good chap, Richard.’
He made enquries and was told which room he was in. He asked to be put through.
‘What on earth are you up to now?’ Amabel said, and Julia knew at once by her voice there had been trouble. She moved away from him slightly, hoping they would have a row and so as not to distract his attention from how tiresome she hoped Amabel would be.
‘I’m going to get him along.’
‘But have you thought at all? I mean does anyone want him?’ she said.
‘Oh, rather, lots of questions for him, ask Alex.’
‘Is that you, Richard?’ he said, ‘I say, come along and have a drink. Come on,’ and he gave their room number.
‘You aren’t really going to ask him about that letter are you?’ Miss Crevy said to Alex. ‘It may embarrass him terribly, you know.’
‘It may,’ Alex said, ‘but he’d rather we did, I think.’
‘But it’s not something to be proud of, is it? I’d have said he would hate it. Isn’t it rather hitting a man when he’s down?’ and she said this in such a way, stressing the word ‘man’, that made it sound as though everyone kicked, bit, and hit women when they were down.
‘Oh, I agree with you, it is,’ Alex said, ‘but you see he’ll enjoy it, he’d be sorry if we didn’t, but if you like we won’t say anything, we’ll let him start it on his own. He enjoys it you see. I’ll bet you he’ll bring it up himself within five minutes.’
‘Then I think it’s revolting.’
‘Darling,’ Julia said to her, still hoping Max and Amabel would quarrel about him, ‘it’s because like when one is shy about something one simply can’t stop talking about it. And besides he wants everyone he meets to tell him it’s all right.’
‘Well,’ Max said to Amabel, as though she had been speaking for Angela Crevy, ‘here he is now, we’ll see,’ and at that he came in.
Mr Richard Cumberland was not unlike Alex and when he spoke his manner was much the same. He said, ‘Why, hullo, my old dears,’ and shook hands all round. If he could he took each hand in one of his, if only one was offered, then he took hold with both hands. He did not shake, he pressed as though to make secrets he would never keep, as though to embrace each private thought you had and to let you know he shared it with you and would share it again with anyone he met. As against this, when he spoke it was never to less than three people. It may have been tact, or that he was circumspect, but he paid no attention to Amabel.
‘You’ve all heard about my little bit of trouble,’ he said, ‘well the town’s too hot to hold me now. You know I put that thing in all the papers about my not being able to come to something or other, well they all made such a fuss you’d never believe so I thought it was time for little Richard to say good-bye for now and here I am.’
‘What a pity,’ Alex said, ‘what a pity.’
‘You don’t sound very glad all of you to see me.’
‘My dear, I couldn’t be more pleased in every way, you must know that, only we had such arguments about who did send that announcement to the papers and I said all through it had been you so…’
‘Oh no Alex, excuse me you never did,’ Miss Crevy said, ‘just the opposite really, you know. You always said someone else had sent it.’
‘There you are,’ Alex said to him, ‘it’s been like this the whole time and there you’ve been not three minutes away, my dear, and we never know.’
‘I say, Richard,’ said Max, ‘where are you aiming for?’