The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie - Muriel Spark [27]
the policewoman. The first was fairly quickly exhausted. "He was a horrible creature," said Jenny. "A terrible beast," said Sandy. The question of the policewoman was inexhaustible, and although Sandy never saw her, nor at that time any policewoman (for these were in the early days of the women police), she quite deserted Alan Breck and Mr. Rochester and all the heroes of fiction for the summer term, and fell in love with the unseen policewoman who had questioned Jenny; and in this way she managed to keep alive Jenny's enthusiasm too. "What did she look like? Did she wear a helmet?" "No, a cap. She had short, fair, curly hair curling under the cap. And a dark blue uniform. She said, 'Now tell me all about it.'" "And what did you say?" said Sandy for the fourth time. For the fourth time Jenny replied: "Well, I said, 'The man was walking along under the trees by the bank, and he was holding something in his hand. And then when he saw me he laughed out loud and said, come and look at this. I said, at what? And I went a bit closer and I saw...' — but I couldn't tell the policewoman what I saw, could I? So the policewoman said to me, 'You saw something nasty?' And I said, 'Yes.' Then she asked me what the man was like, and..." But this was the same story all over again. Sandy wanted new details about the policewoman, she looked for clues. Jenny had pronounced the word "nasty" as "nesty," which was unusual for Jenny. "Did she say 'nasty' or 'nesty'?" said Sandy on this fourth telling. "Nesty." This gave rise to an extremely nasty feeling in Sandy and it put her off the idea of sex for months. All the more as she disapproved of the pronunciation of the word, it made her flesh creep, and she plagued Jenny to change her mind and agree that the policewoman had pronounced it properly. "A lot of people say nesty," said Jenny. "I know, but I don't like them. They're neither one thing nor another." It bothered Sandy a great deal, and she had to invent a new speaking-image for the policewoman. Another thing that troubled her was that Jenny did not know the policewoman's name, or even whether she was addressed as "constable," "sergeant," or merely "miss." Sandy decided to call her Sergeant Anne Grey. Sandy was Anne Grey's right-hand woman in the Force, and they were dedicated to eliminate sex from Edinburgh and environs. In the Sunday newspapers, to which Sandy had free access, the correct technical phrases were to be found, such as "intimacy took place" and "plaintiff was in a certain condition." Females who were up for sex were not called "Miss" or "Mrs.," they were referred to by their surnames: "Willis was remanded in custody...," "Roebuck, said Counsel, was discovered to be in a certain condition." So Sandy pushed her dark blue police force cap to the back of her head and sitting on a stile beside Sergeant Anne Grey watched the spot between the trees by the Water of Leith where the terrible beast had appeared who had said, "Look at this," to Jenny, but where, in fact, Sandy never was. "And another thing," said Sandy, "we've got to find out more about the case of Brodie and whether she is yet in a certain condition as a consequence of her liaison with Gordon Lowther, described as singing master, Marcia Blaine School for Girls." "Intimacy has undoubtedly taken place," said Sergeant Anne, looking very nice in her dark uniform and short-cropped curls blondely fringing her cap. She said, "All we need are a few incriminating documents." "Leave all that to me, Sergeant Anne," said Sandy, because she was at that very time engaged with Jenny in composing the love correspondence between Miss Brodie and the singing master. Sergeant Anne pressed Sandy's hand in gratitude; and they looked into each other's eyes, their mutual understanding too deep for words. At school after the holidays the Water of Leith affair was kept a secret between Jenny and Sandy, for Jenny's mother had said the story must not be spread about. But it seemed natural that Miss Brodie should be told in a spirit of sensational confiding. But something made Sandy say to Jenny