A Handful of Dust - Evelyn Waugh [21]
it again later. Meanwhile try not to brood about it." "I shan't give it another thought." "What's a flat, daddy?" Brenda wore pyjamas at dinner, and afterwards sat close to Tony on the sofa and ate some sugar out of his coffee cup. "I suppose all this means that you're going to start again about your flat?" "Mmmm." "You haven't signed any papers yet have you." "Oh no." Brenda shook her head emphatically. "Then no great harm's done." Tony began to fill his pipe. Brenda knelt on the sofa, sitting back on her heels. "Listen, you haven't been brooding?" "No." "Because, you see, when you say 'flat' you're thinking of something quite different to me. You mean by a flat, a lift and a man in uniform, and a big front door with knobs, and an entrance hall and doors opening in all directions, with kitchens and sculleries and dining rooms and drawing rooms and servants' bathrooms... don't you, Tony?" "More or less." "Exactly. Now I mean just a bedroom and a bath and a telephone. You see the difference? Now a woman I know-" "Who?" "Just a woman-has fixed up a whole house like that off Belgrave Square and they are three pounds a week, no rates and taxes, constant hot water and central heating, woman comes in to make bed when required, what d'you think of that?" "I see." "Now this is how I look at it. What's three pounds a week? Less than nine bob a night. Where could one stay for less than nine bob a night with all those advantages. You're always going to the club and that costs more and I can't stay often with Marjorie because it's hell for her having me and anyway she's got that dog, and you're always saying when I come back in the evenings after shopping, 'Why didn't you stay the night,' you say, 'instead of killing yourself?' Time and again you say it. I'm sure we spend much more than three pounds a week through not having a flat. Tell you what, I'll give up Mr. Cruttwell. How's that?" "D'you really want this thing?" "Mmm." "Well, I'll have to see. We might manage it, but it'll mean putting off the improvements down here." "I don't really deserve it," she said, clinching the-matter. "I've been carrying on anyhow this week." Brenda's stay at Hetton lasted only for three nights. Then she returned to London saying that she had to see about the flat. It did not, however, require very great attention. There was only the colour of the paint to choose and some few articles of furniture. Mrs. Beaver had them ready for her inspection, a bed, a carpet, a dressing table and chair-there was not room for more. Mrs. Beaver tried to sell her a set of needlework pictures for the walls, but these she refused, also an electric bed warmer, a miniature weighing machine for the bathroom, a frigidaire, an antique grandfather clock, a backgammon set of looking-glass and synthetic ivory, a set of prettily bound French eighteenth century poets, a massage apparatus, and a wireless set fitted in a case of Regency lacquer, all of which had been grouped in the shop for her as a 'suggestion.' Mrs. Beaver bore Brenda no ill will for the modesty of her requirements; she was doing very well on the floor above with a Canadian lady who was having her walls covered with chromium plating at immense expense. Meanwhile Brenda stayed with Marjorie, on terms which gradually became acrimonious. "I'm sorry to be pompous," she said one morning, "but I just don't want your Mr. Beaver hanging about the house all day and calling me Marjorie." "Oh well, the flat won't be long now." "And I shall go on saying that I think you're making a ridiculous mistake." "It's just that you don't like Mr. Beaver." "It isn't only that. I think it's hard cheese on Tony." "Oh, Tony's all right." "And if there's a row-" "There won't be a row." "You never know. If there is, I don't want Allan to think I've been helping to arrange things." "I wasn't so disagreeable to you about Robin Beaseley." "There was never much in that," said Marjorie. But with the exception of her sister's, opinion was greatly in favour of Brenda's adventure. The morning telephone buzzed with news of her; even people with whom