Hearing Secret Harmonies - Anthony Powell [59]
‘This young man Scorp Murtlock.’
‘Ah, yes?’
‘I am interested in him.’
‘Scorpio is an interesting young man.’
Widmerpool, seeing he was to get no assistance, became somewhat more hectoring in manner.
‘I am not – to speak plainly – attracted by mumbo-jumbo. What concern me, on the contrary, are the social aspects of Murtlock’s community, if so to be called. Its importance as a vehicle of dissent. I read about his persecution by the police. That set me to making enquiries. I found – from certain young people with whom I am already in touch – that there was a clear case of injustice that ought to be taken up in law.’
‘If you listened to our conversation, Lord Widmerpool, you will by now be aware that I have already confessed myself, at this very table, as something of an amateur of mumbo-jumbo. Believe me, Lord Widmerpool, mumbo-jumbo has its place in this world of ours. Make no mistake about that.’
Fenneau spoke mildly. Widmerpool recognized the underlying firmness. He modified his tone.
‘You may be right, Canon. I was not thinking along quite those lines. What I mean is that mumbo-jumbo has never played any part in my own life. I am – even now with my greatly changed views – a man of affairs, somebody who wants to get things done, and, since I want to get things done, let us move to more concrete matters. Young Murtlock, living much of his time in a caravan, is not an altogether easy person to contact. My informant – who had himself had some truck with him – said that he, Murtlock, sometimes visited you. I thought that perhaps a meeting, or at least the forwarding of a letter, could be arranged through your good self. What struck me about Scorp Murtlock – as I understand he is usually called – was his vigorous sense of rebellion. He is a genuinely rebellious personality. They are rarer than you might think, even today. He seems to have been treated scandalously, indeed ultra vires. His way of life, in certain details, may not be my own, but I am in sympathy with his determination to revolt. Would you be with me, Canon?’
Fenneau was not committed so easily.
‘If you meet Scorpio, Lord Widmerpool, you will find he holds no less strong views on laws that he himself regards as binding, than is his desire to break the bonds that he feels fetter those laws.’
‘That is just what I mean. He seems the prototype of what has become a positive obsession with me, that is to say the necessity to uproot bourgeois values, more especially bourgeois values in connexion with legality. On top of that I am told that young Scorp has a most attractive personality.’
‘Scorpio’s personality can be very attractive.’
Fenneau showed a few teeth when he said that.
‘As you may know, I hold a certain academic appointment. A number of the young people with whom I am brought in contact have made my house something of a centre. I might almost use the word commune. Do you think that Scorp Murtlock would pay me a visit?’
‘That is something on which I cannot pronounce with certainty, Lord Widmerpool.’
Fenneau placed his fingers together again, this time the hands a little apart, in a conventionally parsonic position. He repeated his statement.
‘No. I cannot be sure of that. For one thing I am myself uncertain of Scorpio’s precise whereabouts at the moment.’
‘They could no doubt be ascertained.’
‘I could make enquiries.’
‘I am sure you could run him to earth.’
‘Do you really wish me to do so? I should issue a warning. Charming as Scorpio can be in certain moods, he has what can only be called a darker side too. I cannot advise contact with him to anyone not well versed in the mysteries in which he traffics – not always then.’
Fenneau spoke the words with profound gravity. Widmerpool showed no sign whatever of noticing this change of tone. He did not laugh, because he rarely laughed, but he made little or no attempt to hide the fact that he found this warning