The Valley of Bones - Anthony Powell [90]
‘I want to be alone now, boys,’ he said.
He began to rustle papers. Kedward and I retired. We went along the passage together, Kedward deep in thought.
‘Rowland is taking this pretty hard,’ I said.
Kedward showed surprise.
‘Losing the Company?’
‘Yes.’
‘Do you think so?’
‘I do.’
‘He must have seen it coming.’
‘I don’t think he did for a moment.’
‘Rowland has been getting less and less efficient lately,’ Kedward said. ‘You must have noticed that. You said yourself something was wrong, when you came back from the Aldershot course.’
‘I somehow didn’t expect him to be unstuck just like this.’
‘The Company needs a thorough overhaul,’ said Kedward. ‘There are one or two points I shall want altered in your own Platoon, Nick. It is far from satisfactory. I’ve noticed there’s no snap about them when they march in from training. That’s always a good test of men. They are the worst of the three platoons at musketry, too. You’ll have to give special attention to the range. And another thing, Nick, about your own personal turn-out. Do get that anti-gas cape of yours properly folded. The way you have it done is not according to regulations.’
‘I’ll see to all that, Idwal. Who are you getting as another subaltern?’
‘Lyn Craddock. He’ll go in senior to you, of course. I think Lyn should help pull the Company together.’
‘When do you put your pips up?’
‘Monday. By the way, did I tell you Yanto Breeze is to become a captain too – in the Traffic Control Company. I just heard that this afternoon from one of the drivers who brought some stuff here. It isn’t like getting a company in a battalion, but it’s promotion all the same.’
‘Does Rowland know about Yanto?’
‘I was just telling him when you came into the Company Office – saying it was funny two of his subalterns should become captain at the same moment.’
‘How did Rowland take it?’
‘Didn’t seem much interested. Rowland never liked Yanto. I don’t know whether all that about his sister rankled. I say, Nick, do you know what?’
‘What?’
‘I’m going to write tonight and arrange about the wedding on my next leave.’
‘When’s that going to be?’
‘Getting the Company may mean a postponement, but even then it won’t be too far off. By the way, I’ve got a new snap of my fiancée. Like to see it?’
‘Of course.’
We gazed at the photograph.
‘She’s altered her hair,’ Kedward said.
‘So I see.’
‘I’m not sure I like it the new way,’ he said.
Nevertheless, he gave the photograph its routine kiss before putting it away. His promotion, his fiancée, the wedding in prospect, were matters of fact to him, not, as to Gwatkin, dreams come true. When Gwatkin was given the Company, that must have seemed the first important step in a glorious career; when he first took out Maureen, entry into an equally glorious romance. Kedward, it was true, accepted accession of rank with enthusiasm, but without the smallest romanticism, military or otherwise. As Moreland would have said, it is just the way you look at things. We crossed the hall. Emmot, the Mess waiter, appeared from a doorway. The whole Bithel affair had greatly cheered him up. He looked positively a new man. It was hard to believe he had been sobbing like a child only a few weeks before.
‘You’re wanted on the phone, sir,’ he said, grinning, as if he and I had shared most of the fun of the Bithel incident, ‘your unit.’
I went to the telephone in the Duty Officer’s room.
‘Jenkins here.’
It was the Adjutant.
‘Hold on a moment,’ he said.
I held on. At the other end of the line Maelgwyn-Jones began to talk to someone in the Orderly Room.