‘I’m not.’
‘I brought you some ink as well. Have you got an electric kettle?’
‘Yes. Why?’
‘For opening letters. We like our men to be equipped against an emergency.’
‘What’s the ink for? I’ve got plenty of ink at home.’
‘Secret ink of course. In case you have to send anything by the ordinary mail. Your daughter has a knitting needle, I suppose?’ ‘She doesn’t knit.’
‘Then you’ll have to buy one. Plastic is best. Steel sometimes leaves a mark.’
‘Mark where?’
‘On the envelopes you open.’
‘Why on earth should I want to open envelopes?’
‘It might be necessary for you to examine Dr Hasselbacher’s mail. Of course, you’ll have to find a sub-agent in the post office.’ ‘I absolutely refuse…’
‘Don’t be difficult. I’m having traces of him sent out from London. We’ll decide about his mail after we’ve read them. A good tip -if you run short of ink use bird shit, or am I going too fast?’
‘I haven’t even said I was willing..
‘London agrees to $150 a month, with another hundred and fifty as expenses you’ll have to justify those, of course. Payment of sub-agents, etc. Anything above that will have to be specially authorized.’
‘You are going much too fast.’
‘Free of income-tax, you know,’ Hawthorne said and winked slyly. The wink somehow didn’t go with the royal monogram.
‘You must give me time…’
‘Your code number is 59200 stroke 5.’ He added with pride, ‘Of course I am 59200. You’ll number your sub-agents 59200 stroke 5 stroke 1 and so on. Got the idea?’
‘I don’t see how I can possibly be of use to you.’
‘You are English, aren’t you?’ Hawthorne said briskly.
‘Of course I’m English.’
‘And you refuse to serve your country?’
‘I didn’t say that. But the vacuum cleaners take up a great deal of time.’
‘They are an excellent cover,’ Hawthorne said. ‘Very well thought out.
Your profession has quite a natural air.’
‘But it is natural.’
‘Now if you don’t mind,’ Hawthorne said firmly, ‘we must get down to our Lamb.’
‘Milly,’ Wormold said, ‘you haven’t taken any cereals.’
‘I’ve given up cereals.’
‘You only took one lump of sugar in your coffee. You aren’t going on a diets are you?’
‘No.’
‘Or doing a penance?’
‘No.’
‘You’ll be awfully hungry by lunch-time.’
‘I’ve thought of that. I’m going to eat a terrible lot of potatoes.’
‘Milly, what’s going on?’
‘I’m going to economize. Suddenly in the watches of the night I realized
what an expense I was to you. It was like a voice speaking. I nearly said, “Who
are you?” but I was afraid it would say, “Your Lord and your God.” I’m about the age, you know.’
‘Age for what?’
‘Voices. I’m older than St Therese was when she went into the convent.’
‘Now, Milly, don’t tell me you’re contemplating..
‘No, I’m not. I think Captain Segura’s right. He said I wasn’t the right material for a convent.’
‘Milly, do you know what they call your Captain Segura?’
‘Yes. The Red Vulture. He tortures prisoners.’
‘Does he admit that?’
‘Oh, of course with me he’s on his best behaviour, but he has a cigarette-case made out of human skin. He pretends it’s calf -as if I didn’t know calf when I see it.’
‘You must drop him. Milly.’
‘I shall -slowly, but I have to arrange my stabling first. And that reminds me of the voice.’
‘What did the voice say?’
‘It said -only it sounded much more apocalyptic in the middle of the night-‘You’ve bitten off more than you can chew, my girl. What about the Country Club?”’
‘What about the Country Club?’
‘It’s the only place where I can get any real riding, and we aren’t members. What’s the good of a horse in a stable? Of course Captain Segura is a member, but I knew you wouldn’t want me to depend on him. So I thought perhaps if I could help you to cut the housekeeping by fasting.. ‘What good…
?’
‘Well, then, you might be able to afford to take a family membership.
You ought to enter me as Seraphina. It somehow sounds more suitable than Milly.’ It seemed to Wormold that all she said had a quality of sense; it was Hawthorne who belonged to the cruel and inexplicable world of childhood.
In the basement of the big steel and concrete building near Maida Vale a light over a door changed from red to green, and Hawthorne entered. He had left his elegance behind in the Caribbean and wore a grey flannel suit which had seen better days. At home he didn’t have to keep up appearances; he was part of grey January London.
The Chief sat behind a desk on which an enormous green marble paper-weight held down a single sheet of paper. A half-drunk glass of milk, a bottle of grey pills and a packet of Kleenex stood by the black telephone. (The red one was for scrambling.) His black morning coat, black tie and black monocle hiding the left eye gave him the appearance of an undertaker, just as the basement room had the effect of a vault, a mausoleum, a grave. ‘You wanted me, sir?’
‘Just a gossip, Hawthorne. Just a gossip.’ It was as though a mute were gloomily giving tongue after the day’s burials were over. ‘When did you get back, Hawthorne?’
‘A week ago, sir. I’ll be returning to Jamaica on Friday.’
‘All going well?’
‘I think we’ve got the Caribbean sewn up ROW, sir,’ Hawthorne said.
‘Martinique?’
‘No difficulties there, sir. You remember at Fort de France we are working with the Deuxi me Bureau.’
‘Only up to a point?’
‘Oh yes, of course, only up to a point. Haiti was more of a problem, but 59200 stroke 2 is proving energetic. I was more uncertain at first about 59200 stroke 5.’
‘Stroke five?’
‘Our man in Havana, sir. I didn’t have much choice there, and at first he didn’t seem very keen on the job. A bit stubborn.’
‘That kind sometimes develops best.’
‘Yes, sir. I was a little worried too by his contacts. (There’s a German called Hasselbacher, but we haven’t found any traces of him yet.) However he seems to be going ahead. We got a request for extra expenses just as I was leaving Kingston.’
‘Always a good sign.’
‘Yes, sir.’
‘Shows the imagination is working.’
‘Yes. He wanted to become a member of the Country Club. Haunt of the millionaires, you know. Best source for political and economic information. The subscription’s very high, about ten times the size of White’s, but I’ve allowed it.’
‘You did right. How are his reports?’
‘Well, as a matter of fact, we haven’t had any yet, but of course it will take time for him to organize his contacts. Perhaps I rather overemphasized the need of security.’
‘You can’t. No use having a live wire if it fuses.’
‘As it happens, he’s rather advantageously placed. Very good business contacts a lot of them with Government officials and leading Ministers.’ ‘Ah,’ the Chief said. He took off the black monocle and began to polish it with a piece of Kleenex. The eye that he disclosed was made of glass; pale blue and unconvincing, it might have come out of a doll which said ‘Mama’. ‘What’s his business?’
‘Oh, he imports, you know. Machinery, that sort of thing.’ It was always important to one’s own career to employ agents who were men of good social standing. The petty details on the secret file dealing with the store in Lamparilla Street would never, in ordinary circumstances, reach this basement-room.
‘Why isn’t he already a member of the Country Club?’ ‘Well, I think he’s been rather a recluse of recent years. Bit of domestic trouble.’