Temporary Kings - Anthony Powell [96]
‘Reading novels needs almost as much talent as writing them,’ he used to say.
The occasion had been just before Bagshaw and I had taken him home, on the way found that Pamela had thrown his manuscript into the Regent Canal. Trapnel had said something else that evening too. Now the words came back, in the way spoken words do, with quite a new meaning.
‘Call Hemingway’s impotent good guy naturalistic? Think of what Dostoevsky would have made of him? After all, Dostoevsky did deal with an impotent good guy in love with a bitch.’
Was that the answer? Was he a good guy? Was he in love? Was the condition only released by Death? The train of thought was interrupted by Dr Brightman offering a new suggestion.
‘Simply making use of the connexion with linseed oil – The Linseed Brothers?’
‘That omits the element of blackness, of darkness, which obviously broods over the story, and must be conveyed by the name.’
When it was time to thank for the party, leave, Truscott, who was by then talking with the Ambassador, gave a smile that indicated he had hopes of the very worst for Widmerpool. Coming down the steps of the Embassy, I found myself with the Quiggins. We walked along Kensington Palace Gardens together, moving south towards the High Street. I asked Ada if any progress had been made in deciding what was to be Glober’s last great film.
‘Do you mean to say you don’t know? Louis is coming over next month. Everything is arranged.’
‘What’s it to be?’
‘Match Me Such Marvel, of course. I’m sure it’s going to make a box-office record. I can’t wait.’
‘So Trapnel’s off?’
Ada showed more pity than astonishment.
‘Trapnel?’
‘Glober was going to do a Trapnel film when we were in Venice. Probably a kind of life of Trapnel, with Pamela Widmerpool in the lead. You’d only just begun to make St John Clarke propaganda with him.’
‘He saw at once the St John Clarke novel was a much better idea.’
‘Is Pamela equally happy?’
Quiggin cut in.
‘I’m bored to death with this film of Glober’s. I don’t believe we’re really going to make any money out of it, even if he does it. You never know with these people. Set against Ada’s time writing her own novels, or working in the firm, I’ve always doubted whether it’s worth while.’
‘Oh, shut up,’ said Ada.
She turned to me again.
‘Do you really not know about Louis deciding on another girl for his leading lady, as well as ditching the Trapnel idea? That was all settled months ago.’
‘Glober found Pamela too much in the end?’
‘He fell for someone else.’
Quiggin continued to show irritation about the film.
‘Do let’s discuss another subject. The food at lunch wasn’t too bad. I’m never sure Caucasian wine suits me. I thought he seemed rather a sulky little man, when I had a word with him through the interpreter.
‘Who’s Glober fallen for now?’
‘Why, Polly Duport, of course. You must live absolutely out of the world not to know that. He saw her in the Hardy film at the Venice Festival. She turned up there herself. It was an instantaneous click.’
‘Didn’t that cause trouble?’
‘With Pam?’
‘Yes.’
‘I don’t think Pam really cared by then, even if she cared much before. She was already mad about that other American, what was he called – Russell Gwinnett. She still is. Haven’t you heard about what happened at the Bagshaws’?’
‘I know about that, more or less, but not about Polly Duport.’
‘You remember how horrid Pam was to me in Venice, considering what friends we’d been. She’s been ringing me up almost daily lately, trying to find out what’s become of Gwinnett. How should I know? I barely met him. The most I did was to ask for us to be allowed to consider his book on X. Trapnel, when it’s finished.’
This upset Quiggin again.
‘A book on X. Trapnel is never going to sell. Why get us involved in it at all. It would only mean more money down the drain.’
‘So any question of Pamela marrying Glober is at an end?’
‘Why should she marry Glober?’
‘You said he wanted to marry her – not just have an affair with her.’
‘I did?’
‘Yes.’
‘I’m sure I didn’t. Anyway, if I did, I shouldn’t have done so. Forget about