The Kindly Ones - Anthony Powell [86]
‘Nice news,’ he said, ‘isn’t it?’
‘What?’
‘Germany and Russia.’
‘What have they done? I haven’t seen a paper.’
‘Signed a Non-Aggression Pact with each other.’
He handed me one of the newspapers. I glanced at the headlines.
‘Cheerful situation, you will agree,’ said Duport.
‘Makes a good start to the day.’
I felt a sinking inside me as I read.
‘Molotov and Ribbentrop,’ said Duport. ‘Sound like the names of a pair of performing monkeys. Just the final touch to balls up my affairs.’
‘It will be war all right now.’
‘And Hitler will be able to buy all the chromite he wants from the Soviet.’
‘So what?’
‘It’s good-bye to my return to Turkey, whatever happens.’
‘But if there’s war, shan’t we want the stuff more than ever?’
‘Of course we shall. Even a bloody book-reviewer, or whatever you are, can see that. It doesn’t prevent Widmerpool from failing to grasp the point. The probability of war made the pre-empting of the Turkish market essential to this country.’
‘Then why not still?’
‘Buying chromite to prevent Germany from getting it, and buying it just for our own use, are not the same thing. All the chromite Germany wants will now be available from Russian sources – and a bloody long list of other important items too.’
‘I see.’
‘Donners will handle matters differently now. I shall drop out automatically. I might get another job out of him, not that one. But can you imagine Widmerpool being such a fool as to suppose the prospect of war would diminish Donners-Brebner requirements. “Cut down our commitments”, indeed.’
Duport spat out some kipper-bones on to his plate. He took several deep gulps of coffee.
‘Of course in a way Widmerpool turned out to be right,’ he said. ‘As usual, his crassness brought him luck. As a matter of fact, I wouldn’t wonder if he didn’t cut off my credits as much from spite as obtuseness.’
‘Why should Widmerpool want to spite you?’
‘Just to show who’s master. I sent him one or two pretty curt telegrams. He didn’t like that. Probably decided to get his own back. Anyway, I’m up a gum tree now.’
I saw he had cause to grumble. At that moment, I could not spare much sympathy. In any case, I did not care for Duport, although I had to admit he had his points. He was, in his way, a man of action. Ahead, I thought, lay plenty of opportunity for action of one kind or another. Even now, a thousand things had to be done. Then and there, the only course to follow was to oversee Uncle Giles’s cremation, return home, try to make plans in the light of the new international situation.
‘ ’Spect they’ll requisition the place now all right,’ said Albert, when I saw him. ‘That’s if there’s anything to requisition in a day or two. Hitler’s not one to tell us when he’s coming. Just loose a lot of bombs, I reckon. The wife’s still poorly and taking on a treat about the blackout in the bedrooms.’
For a man who thoroughly disliked danger, Albert faced the prospect of total war pretty well. At best its circumstances would shatter the props of his daily life at a time when he was no longer young. All the same, the Germans, the Russians, the suffragettes were all one when it came to putting up the shutters. He might be afraid when a policeman walked up the Stonehurst drive; that trepidation was scarcely at all increased by the prospect of bombardment from the air. Indeed, his fear was really a sort of courage, fear and courage being close to each other, like love and hate.
‘Mr Duport and I sat up with Dr Trelawney for a while after he went to bed last night,’ I said.
Albert shook his head.
‘Don’t know how we’re going to get rid of him now,’ he said. ‘Flesh and blood won’t stand it much longer.