Выбрать главу
he fresh air." This was revolutionary, considering that Mrs Flack never, never walked, except when strictly necessary, on account of her heart, her blood pressure, her varicose veins, and generally delicate state of health. The fresh air, besides, was as foreign to her yellow skin as Jews to Sarsaparilla. "Why, dear, if you think you ought." Mrs Jolley had to speak at last. "But I must hurry along," she said. "My lady"-and here she had to laugh-"will be expecting me at Xanadu." "Only a little of the way," Mrs Flack insisted. "I was never a drag on anyone. But as far as Montebello Avenue." "Ah!" Mrs Jolley giggled. It was certainly entrancing to walk together past homes which failed any longer to conceal, from Mrs Jolley in her mauve eye-veil, from Mrs Flack in her flat black hat with its cockade of dust. "Here," said Mrs Flack, adjusting herself so that she became as much edge as possible, "are people who should not be allowed to live in any decent neighbourhood." Mrs Jolley almost dislocated her neck. "I could not tell you in detail-it would make your flesh creep," said the disappointing Mrs Flack, "only that a father and a young girl, well, I will put it bluntly-his daughter. There is a little motor-car in which you could not squeeze a third. She in slippery blouses that might be wet for all they hide." "What do you know!" Mrs Jolley clucked. She could not help but feel she had suddenly got possession of all knowledge, thanks to the generosity of Mrs Flack. Mrs Jolley walked, red, but brave. "There is the post-office," Mrs Flack continued. "There is that Mrs Sugden." "Oo-hoo! Mrs Sugden!" she had to call. "How are we today?" Mrs Sugden was good, thanks. Mrs Flack hated Mrs Sugden, because the postmistress would never be persuaded to tell. Then the two ladies began to tread more cautiously, for they had entered Montebello Avenue. Their ankles had begun to twist on stones. Where the pavement should have been, the grass, unpleasant in itself, oozing black juices when it did not cut the stockings, threatened to reveal the rarer forms of nastiness at some future step. "If you are not loopy to go on living at Xanadu!" Mrs Flack called from her wading. Mrs Jolley usually replied: A person must retain her principles; but today, it had to be admitted, Mrs Flack's grip on life was so much stronger, her friend had been reduced. So, instead, she answered, "Beggars cannot be choosers." "Beggar me!" shrieked Mrs Flack, somewhat surprisingly. Foreign parts and paspalum had made her reckless. Her waxen skin had begun to appear deliquescent. "There!" she suddenly hissed, and restrained her friend's skirt. It was as though an experienced huntsman had at last delivered a disbelieving novice into the presence of promised game. Not that the game itself was in evidence yet, only its habitat. The two ladies stood in the shelter of a blackberry bush to observe the house in which the foreign Jew was living. The small brown house was suitably, obscenely poor. The other side of the fence, from which previous owners had pulled pickets at random to stoke winter fires, mops of weed were threatening to shake their cotton heads. Of course there were the willows. Nobody could have denied the existence of those, only their value was doubtful because they had cost nothing. The willows poured round the shabby little house, serene cascades of green, or lapped peacefully at its wooden edges. Many a passer-by might have chosen to plunge in, and drown, in those consoling depths, but the two observers were longing for something that would rend their souls-a foetus, say, or a mutilated corpse. Instead, they had to make do with the sight of guttering that promised to fall off soon, and windows which, if glitteringly clean, ignored the common decencies of lace or net. "Not even a geranium," said Mrs Flack, with bitter satisfaction. Then, if you please, the door opened, and out came, not the Jew, that would have been electric enough, but a woman, a woman. It was a thickish, middle-aged woman, in shapeless sort of faded dress. Some no-account woman. It was Mrs Jolley who realized first. She was often quite quick, although it was Mrs Flack who excelled in psychic powers. "Why," Mrs Jolley said now, "what do you know! It is that Mrs Godbold!" Mrs Flack was stunned, but managed, "I always thought how Mrs Godbold was deep, but how deep, I did not calculate." "It is wonderful," said Mrs Jolley, "to what lengths a woman will go." For the owner himself had just emerged. The Jew. The two ladies clutched each other by the gloves. They had never seen anything so yellow or so strange. Strange? Why, dreadful, dreadful! Now the whirlwinds were rising in honest breasts, that honest corsets were striving to contain. The phlegm had come in Mrs Flack's mouth, causing her to swallow quickly down. Mrs Jolley, as she had already confessed, had noticed the man on one or two previous occasions as she came and went between Xanadu and Sarsaparilla, but had failed to observe such disgraceful dilapidation of appearance, such irregularities of stubble, such a top-heavy, bulbous head, such a truly fearful nose. In the circumstances, she felt she should apologize to her somewhat delicate companion. But the latter was craning now. "He is big," she remarked, between her moist teeth. "He is not small," Mrs Jolley agreed, as they stood supporting each other on wishbone legs. "Who would ever of thought," Mrs Flack just articulated, "that Mrs Godbold." Mrs Godbold and the man were standing together on the steps of the veranda, she on the lower, he above, so that she was forced to look up, exposing her face to his and to the evening light. It was obvious that the woman's flat, and ordinarily uncommunicative face had been opened by some experience of a private nature, or perhaps it was just the light, gilding surfaces, dissolving the film of discouragement and doubt which life leaves behind, loosening the formal braids of hair, furnishing an aureole, which, if not supernatural-reason would not submit to that-provided an agreeable background to motes and gnats. Indeed, the Jew himself began to acquire a certain mineral splendour as he stood talking, even laughing with his friend, in that envelope or womb of light. Whether the two had been strengthened by some event of importance, or were weakened by their present total disregard for defences, their audience was mad to know, but could not, could not tell. Mrs Jolley and Mrs Flack could only crane and swallow, beside the blackberry bush, beneath their hats, and hope that something disgraceful might occur. "What is that, Mrs Jolley?" Mrs Flack asked at last. But Mrs Jolley did not hear. Her breath was roaring through her mouth. For the Jew had begun to show Mrs Godbold something. Whatever it was-it could have been a parcel, or a bird, only that was improbable, a white bird-their attention was all upon it. "I believe he has cut his hand," Mrs Jolley decided. "She has bandaged up his hand. Well, that is one way!" Mrs Flack sucked incredulous teeth. She was quite exhausted by now. Then, as people will toss up the ball of friendship, into the last light, at the moment of departure, and it will hang there briefly, lovely and luminous to see, so did the Jew and Mrs Godbold. There hung the golden sphere. The laughter climbed up quickly, out of their exposed throats, and clashed together by consent; the light splintered against their teeth. How private, and mysterious, and beautiful it was, even the intruders suspected, and were deterred momentarily from hating. When they were again fully clothed in their right minds, Mrs Jolley said to her companion, "Do you suppose she comes to him often?" "I would not know," replied Mrs Flack, though it was obvious she did. "Tsst!" she added, quick as snakes. Mrs Godbold had begun to turn. "See you at church!" hissed Mrs Jolley. "See you at church!" repeated Mrs Flack. Their eyes flickered for a moment over the Christ who would rise to the surface of Sunday morning. Then they drew apart. Mrs Jolley walked on her way, briskly but discreetly, down the hill, towards Xanadu. She would have liked to kill some animal, fierce enough to fan her pride, weak enough to make it possible, but as it was doubtful any such beast would offer itself, scrubby though the neighbourhood was, she drifted dreamily through the series of possible ways in which she might continue to harry the human soul.