Casanova's Chinese Restaurant - Anthony Powell [94]
‘It certainly would.’
‘I’ve no reason to suppose he didn’t feel just as much like taking the jump then as three days later.’
‘Do you remember when he talked of suicide in Casanova’s?’
‘Suicide was always one of Maclintick’s favourite subjects.
‘It was?’
‘Of course.’
‘He said then that he gave himself five years.’
‘He lasted about eight or nine. Gossage has been very good about sorting the musical stuff. There is a mass of it to deal with.’
‘Any good?’
Moreland shook his head.
‘The smell in the house was appalling,’ he said. ‘Absolutely frightful. Gossage had to go and stand in the street for a time to recover.’
‘Anything been heard of Mrs Maclintick?’
‘I had a line from her asking me to deal with certain things. I think Carolo wants to keep out of it as much as possible for professional reasons – rather naturally.’
‘Do you think Maclintick just could not get on without that woman?’
‘Maclintick always had his fair share of melancholia, quite apart from anything brought on by marriage or the lack of it.’
‘But his wife clearing out brought matters to a head?’
‘Possibly. It must be appalling to commit suicide, even though one sometimes feels a trifle like it. Anyway, the whole Maclintick business has made certain things clearer to me.’
‘As for example?’
‘Do you remember when we used to talk about the Ghost Railway and say how like everyday life it was – or at least one’s own everyday life?’
‘You mean rushing downhill in total darkness and crashing through closed doors?’
‘Yes – and the body lying across the line. The Maclintick affair has reminded me of the disagreeable possibilities of the world one inhabits – the fact that the fewer persons one involves in it the better.’
‘How do you mean? However you live there are always elements of that sort.’
‘I know, but you get familiar with the material you yourself have to cope with. You may have heard that I have been somewhat entangled with a person not far removed from your own family circle.’
‘Rumours percolate.’
‘So I supposed.’
‘But you would be surprised to learn my own ignorance of detail.’
‘Glad to hear it. Need I say more? You must surely appreciate the contrast between the sort of thing I have been engaged upon in connexion with poor old Maclintick’s mortal remains during the last few days, and the kind of atmosphere one prefers when attempting to conduct an idyllic love affair.’
‘I can see that.’
‘I do not suggest my daily routine comes within several million light-years of an idyll – but it normally rises a few degrees above what life has been recently.’
I began to understand the reason why Matilda had sounded relieved when we had spoken on the telephone a day or two before.
‘The fact is,’ said Moreland, ‘very few people can deal with more than a limited number of emotional problems at any given moment. At least I can’t. Up to a point, I can walk a tightrope held at one end by Matilda, and at the other by the person of whom you tell me you are already apprised. But I can’t carry Maclintick on my back. Maclintick gassing himself was just a bit too much.’
‘But what are you explaining to me?’
‘That any rumours you hear in future can be given an unqualified denial.’
‘I see.’
‘Forgive my bluntness.’
‘It suits you.’
‘I hope I have made myself dear.’
‘You haven’t, really. There is still a lot I should like to know. For example, did you really contemplate terminating your present marriage?’
‘It looked like that at one moment.’
‘With the agreement of the third party?’
‘Yes.’
‘And now she knows you think differently?’
‘She sees what I mean.’
‘And thinks the same?’
‘Yes.’
I too could see what he meant. At least I thought I could. Moreland meant that Maclintick, in doing away with himself, had drawn attention, indeed heavily underlined, the conditions of life to which Moreland himself was inexorably committed; a world to which Priscilla did not yet belong, even