Casanova's Chinese Restaurant - Anthony Powell [40]
‘We call him Erridge,’ said Lady Warminster kindly, ‘I never quite know why. It was not the custom in my own family, but then we were different from the Tollands in many ways. The Tollands have always called their eldest son by the second title. I suppose he could perfectly well be called Alfred. And yet, somehow, Erridge is not quite an Alfred.’
She considered a moment, her face clouding, as if the problem of why Erridge was not quite an Alfred worried her more than a little, even made her momentarily sad.
‘Lady Priscilla mentioned her brother’s political sympathies just now,’ said St John Clarke, smiling gently in return as if to express the ease with which he could cope with social fences of the kind Lady Warminster set in his way. ‘I expect you may know he is leaving for Spain almost immediately.’
‘He told me so himself,’ said Lady Warminster.
‘The fact is,’ said St John Clarke, getting rather red in the face and losing some of his courtliness of manner, ‘the fact is, Lady Warminster, your stepson has asked me to look after his business affairs while he is away. Of course I do not mean his estate, nothing like that. His interests of a politico-literary kind—’
He took up his glass, but it was empty.
‘Lord Warminster and I have been seeing a good deal of each other since his return from the East,’ he said, stifling a sigh probably caused by thought of Mona.
‘At Thrubworth?’ asked Lady Warminster.
She showed sudden interest. In fact everyone at the table pricked up their ears at the supposition that St John Clarke had been received at Thrubworth. Guests at Thrubworth were rare. A new name in the visitors’ book would be a significant matter.
‘At Thrubworth,’ said St John Clarke reverently. ‘We talked there until the wee, small hours. During the past few years both of us have undergone strains and stresses, Lady Warminster. Alfred has been very good to me.’
He stared glassily down the table, as if he thought I myself might well be largely to blame for Members and Quiggin; for the disturbances the two of them must have evoked in his personal life.
‘No one can tell what may happen to Lord Warminster in Spain,’ St John Clarke said, speaking now more dramatically.
He knows me to be a strong supporter of the democratically elected Spanish Government. He knows I feel an equally strong admiration for himself.’
‘Yes of course,’ said Lady Warminster encouragingly.
‘At the same time, Lady Warminster, I am an author, a man of letters, not a man of affairs. I thought it only right you should know the position. I want to do nothing behind your back. Besides that, Alfred has occasional dealings with persons known to me in the past with whom I should be unwilling … I do not mean of course …’
These phrases, which seemed to appeal to Lady Warminster’s better feelings, certainly referred in the main to Quiggin.
‘Oh, I am sure he does,’ said Lady Warminster fervently. ‘I do so much sympathise with you in feeling that.’
She plainly accepted St John Clarke’s halting sentences as reprobating every friend Erridge possessed.
‘In short I wondered if I could from time to time ask your advice, Lady Warminster – might get in touch with you if necessary, perhaps even rely on you to speak with acquaintances of your stepson’s with whom-for purely personal reasons, nothing worse I assure you – I should find it distasteful to deal.’
St John Clarke made a gesture to show that he was throwing himself on Lady Warminster’s mercy. She, on her part, did not appear at all unwilling to learn something of Erridge’s affairs in this manner, although she can have had no very clear picture of St John Clarke’s aims, which were certainly not easy to clarify. No doubt he himself liked the idea of interfering in Erridge’s business, but at the same time did not wish to be brought once more in contact with Quiggin. Lady Warminster must have found it flattering to be offered the position of St John Clarke’s confidante, which would at once satisfy curiosity and be in the best interests of the family. If Erridge never came back