Passenger to Frankfurt - Agatha Christie [41]
‘If you know a thing,’ he said, ‘it is always a great temptation to show that you know it; to talk about it, in other words. It is not that you want to give information, it is not that you have been offered payment to give information. It is that you want to show how important you are. Yes, it’s just as simple as that. In fact,’ said Mr Robinson, and he half closed his eyes, ‘everything in this world is so very, very simple. That’s what people don’t understand.’
The Countess got to her feet and Stafford Nye followed her example.
‘I hope you will sleep well and be comfortable,’ said Mr Robinson. ‘This house is, I think, moderately comfortable.’
Stafford Nye murmured that he was quite sure of that, and on that point he was shortly to be proved to have been quite right. He laid his head on the pillow and went to sleep immediately.
Book 2
Journey To Siegfried
Chapter 10
The Woman In The Schloss
I
They came out of the Festival Youth Theatre to the refreshing night air. Below them in a sweep of the ground, was a lighted restaurant. On the side of the hill was another, smaller one. The restaurants varied slightly in price though neither of them was inexpensive. Renata was in evening dress of black velvet, Sir Stafford Nye was in white tie and full evening dress.
‘A very distinguished audience,’ murmured Stafford Nye to his companion. ‘Plenty of money there. A young audience on the whole. You wouldn’t think they could afford it.’
‘Oh! that can be seen to–it is seen to.’
‘A subsidy for the élite of youth? That kind of thing?’ ‘Yes.’
They walked towards the restaurant on the high side of the hill.
‘They give you an hour for the meal. Is that right?’
‘Technically an hour. Actually an hour and a quarter.’
‘That audience,’ said Sir Stafford Nye, ‘most of them, nearly all of them, I should say, are real lovers of music.’
‘Most of them, yes. It’s important, you know.’
‘What do you mean–important?’
‘That the enthusiasm should be genuine. At both ends of the scale,’ she added.
‘What did you mean, exactly, by that?’
‘Those who practise and organize violence must love violence, must want it, must yearn for it. The seal of ecstasy in every movement, of slashing, hurting, destroying. And the same thing with the music. The ears must appreciate every moment of the harmonies and beauties. There can be no pretending in this game.’
‘Can you double the rôles–do you mean you can combine violence and a love of music or a love of art?’
‘It is not always easy, I think, but yes. There are many who can. It is safer really, if they don’t have to combine rôles.’
‘It’s better to keep it simple, as our fat friend Mr Robinson would say? Let the lovers of music love music, let the violent practitioners love violence. Is that what you mean?’
‘I think so.’
‘I am enjoying this very much. The two days that we have stayed here, the two nights of music that we have enjoyed. I have not enjoyed all the music because I am not perhaps sufficiently modern in my taste. I find the clothes very interesting.’
‘Are you talking of the stage production?’
‘No, no, I was talking of the audience, really. You and I, the squares, the old-fashioned. You, Countess, in your society gown, I in my white tie and tails. Not a comfortable get-up, it never has been. And then the others, the silks and the velvets, the ruffled shirts of the men, real lace, I noticed, several times–and the plush and the hair and the luxury of avant garde, the luxury of the eighteen-hundreds or you might almost say of the Elizabethan age or of Van Dyck pictures.’
‘Yes, you are right.’
‘I’m no nearer, though, to what it all means. I haven’t learnt anything. I haven’t found out anything.’
‘You mustn’t be impatient. This is a rich show, supported, asked for, demanded perhaps by youth and provided by–’
‘By whom?’
‘We don’t know yet. We shall know.’
‘I’m so glad you are sure of it.’
They went into the restaurant and sat down. The food was good though not in any way ornate or luxurious. Once or twice they were spoken to by an acquaintance