‘Of course you know she’s a tart, don’t you?’ she said coolly.
He, much embarrassed, spoke of the unhappy life she had led and how he wanted to make up to her for all she had suffered.
‘Oh, don’t talk such rot,’ she answered. ‘It’s grand work if you can get it.’
Ellean’s son had been one of Mrs Marten’s numerous lovers just as Ellean’s husband had been one of Paula Tanqueray’s. When Robert Humphreys brought his wife down to his home in the country and this fact was discovered, they decided that Honor must be informed. To their consternation Honor did not turn a hair. She knew already.
‘I was as pleased as Punch when I found out,’ she told her stepmother. ‘You see, darling, you can tell me if he’s all right in bed.’
This was Avice Crichton’s best scene, it lasted a full ten minutes, and Michael had realized from the beginning that it was effective and important. Avice’s cold, matter-of-fact prettiness had been exactly what he had thought would be so telling in the circumstances. But after half a dozen rehearsals he began to think that that was all she had to give. He talked it over with Julia.
‘How d’you think Avice is shaping?’
‘It’s early days to tell yet.’
‘I’m not happy about her. You said she could act. I’ve seen no sign of it yet.’
‘It’s a cast-iron part. She can’t really go wrong in it.’
‘You know just as well as I do that there’s no such thing as a cast-iron part. However good a part is, it has to be acted for all it’s worth. I’m not sure if it wouldn’t be better to kick her out and get somebody else.’
‘That wouldn’t be so easy. I think you ought to give her a chance.’
‘She’s so awkward, her gestures are so meaningless.’
Julia reflected. She had her reasons for wishing to keep Avice in the cast. She knew her well enough to be sure that if she were dismissed she would tell Tom that it was because Julia was jealous of her. He loved her and would believe anything she said. He might even think that Julia had put this affront on her in revenge for his desertion. No, no, she must stay. She must play the part, and fail; and Tom must see with his own eyes what a bad actress she was. They both of them thought the play would make her. Fools. It would kill her.
‘You know how clever you are, Michael, I’m sure you can train her if you’re willing to take a little trouble.’
‘But that’s just it, she doesn’t seem able to take direction. I show her exactly how to say a line and then she goes and says it in her own way. You wouldn’t believe it, but sometimes I can hardly help thinking she’s under the delusion that she knows better than I do.’
‘You make her nervous. When you tell her to do something she’s in such a dither she doesn’t know what she’s up to.’
‘Good lord, no one could be more easy than I am. I’ve never even been sharp with her.’
Julia gave him an affectionate smile.
‘Are you going to pretend that you really don’t know what’s the matter with her?’
‘No, what?’
He looked at her with a blank face.
‘Come off it, darling. Haven’t you noticed that she’s madly in love with you?’
‘With me? But I thought she was practically engaged to Tom. Nonsense. You’re always fancying things like that.’
‘But it’s quite obvious. After all she isn’t the first who’s fallen for your fatal beauty, and I don’t suppose she’ll be the last.’
‘Heaven knows, I don’t want to queer poor Tom’s pitch.’
‘It’s not your fault, is it?’
‘What d’you want me to do about it then?’
‘Well, I think you ought to be nice to her. She’s very young, you know, poor thing. What she wants is a helping hand. If you took her alone a few times and went through the part with her I believe you could do wonders. Why don’t you take her out to lunch one day and have a talk to her?’
She saw the gleam in Michael’s eyes as he considered the proposition and the shadow of a smile that was outlined on his lips.
‘Of course the great thing is to get the play as well acted as we can.’
‘I know it’ll be a bore for you, but honestly, for the sake of the play I think it’ll be worth while.’
‘You know that I would never do anything to upset you, Julia. I mean, I’d much sooner fire the girl and get someone else in her place.’
‘I think that would be such a mistake. I’m convinced that if you’ll only take enough trouble with her she’ll give a very good performance.’
He walked up and down the room once or twice. He seemed to be considering the matter from every side.
‘Well, I suppose it’s my job to get the best performance I can out of every member of my cast. In every case you have to find out which is the best method of approach.’
He threw out his chin and drew in his belly. He straightened his back. Julia knew that Avice Crichton would hold the part, and next day at rehearsal he took her aside and had a long talk with her. She knew by his manner exactly what he was saying and, watching them out of the corner of her eye, presently she saw Avice nod and smile. He had asked her to lunch with him. With a contented mind Julia went on studying her part.
27
THEY had been rehearsing for a fortnight when Roger arrived from Austria. He had been spending a few weeks on a Carinthian lake, and after a day or two in London was to go and stay with friends in Scotland. Since Michael had to dine early to go to the theatre Julia went to meet him by herself. When she was dressing, Evie, sniffing as usual, told her that she was taking as much pains to make herself look nice as if she were going to meet a young man. She wanted Roger to be proud of her, and certainly she looked very young and pretty in her summer frock as she strolled up and down the platform. You would have thought, but wrongly, that she was perfectly unconscious of the attention she attracted. Roger, after a month in the sun, was very brown, but he was still rather spotty and he seemed thinner than when he had left London at the New Year. She hugged him with exuberant affection. He smiled slightly.
They were to dine by themselves. Julia asked him if he would like to go to a play afterwards or to the pictures, but he said he preferred to stay at home.
‘That’ll be much nicer,’ she answered, ‘and we’ll just talk.’
There was indeed a subject that Michael had invited her to discuss with Roger when the opportunity arose. Now that he was going to Cambridge so soon he ought to make up his mind what he wanted to do. Michael was afraid that he would drift through his time there and then go into a broker’s office or even on the stage. Thinking that Julia had more tact than he, and more influence with the boy, he had urged her to put before him the advantages of the Foreign Office and the brilliant possibilities of the Bar. Julia thought it would be strange if in the course of two or three hours’ conversation she could not find a way to lead to this important topic. At dinner she tried to get him to talk about Vienna. But he was reticent.
‘Oh, I just did the usual things, you know. I saw the sights and worked hard at my German. I knocked about in beer places. I went to the opera a good deal.’
She wondered if he had had any love affairs.
‘Anyhow, you haven’t come back engaged to a Viennese maiden,’ she said, thinking to draw him out.
He gave her a reflective, but faintly amused look. You might almost have thought that he had seen what she was driving at. It was strange; though he was her own son she did not feel quite at home with him.
‘No,’ he answered, ‘I was too busy to bother with that sort of thing.’
‘I suppose you went to all the theatres.’