Troubles - James Gordon Farrell [71]
In the Palm Court the Major was greeted by Edward with a fresh burst of enthusiasm, as if the few minutes which had elapsed had been yet another long separation. No sooner had the Major forced his way through the new and astonishing growth of bamboo that threatened to occlude the entrance entirely (for here too the seasons had continued to revolve) when Edward was on his feet calling: “Here he is, the man himself. Come here, Brendan, and explain why you haven’t been keeping in touch with us all this time...Eh? Let’s hear his excuses, what! Damned if the fellow hasn’t been too busy chasing the ladies to give his old friends a thought. Doctor, what d’you think? What d’you make of a friend who won’t write letters, poor sort of a chap, isn’t he? And I’m dashed if he hasn’t put on weight into the bargain. A bit of riding is what he needs, I should think, and a few early mornings out with a gun and a dog...How does that sound to you, Brendan? Not so bad, eh? I thought you’d get tired of being citified sooner or later. Now then, come and tell us all your news, old man. Sit here so we can have a look at you. Yes, that one looks solid enough...pull it up a bit and I’ll do the honours. Och, yes, I have to do it all m’self these days, I’m turning into an old woman so I am, a real old woman. We started. You don’t mind, do you? Thought we wouldn’t wait for the tea to get cold...”
While the Major sipped his tea and peered curiously around at his scarcely familiar surroundings Edward fired questions at him, flitting from one subject to another, as often as not without waiting for replies. Such was his state of excitement that he could scarcely keep still. Indeed, he kept jumping to his feet to make unnecessary adjustments to the table.
“What was Ascot like last year?” he would cry gaily, handing everyone an extra teaspoon. “You must have been there ...now don’t tell me you weren’t. Yes? Yes? No, wait a minute, try a fill of this and see how you like it. I got the man in Fox’s to make it up specially...a special blend, my own concoction, thought I’d try it out on you, see how you like it. No, wait, have a slice of cake first. Bewley’s. They say it’s very good, don’t know much about cake m’self, but they say it’s a good one...Did I tell you I’d taken up science again? Have to keep the old brain from getting rusty, don’t we? Body and mind. Body and mind. Body and soul, as Sammy would tell you. Never had any time for Ascot, Brendan. Ascot is for the ladies, m’father used to say, the men just stand there like stuffed parrots. Give me a good point-to-point any day where there’s none of that nonsense. Used to let poor Angie and her mother bully me into it sometimes. (Poor Angela, echoed the Major in his thoughts, feeling a remote ache of compassion from the folded wad of paper in his breast pocket.) Didn’t care for it, though...Now, young man, what’ll you have? Another slice of cake to put some muscle on you, eh? And you, Doctor? More tea? Now, Brendan, frankly I don’t know what this country is coming to...Have they gone mad over there in London? You tell us, you’ve just come from there...have they gone mad or what? The bloody Shinners are getting away with murder. Land-grabbing is the latest. Pious articles in the papers about what they call ‘land-hunger in the west’ and d’you know what it is? They’re forcing chaps to sign over their land at gunpoint for a pittance...”
“Don’t be a damn fool, Edward!” the doctor said distinctly.
“There, you see, Brendan,” Edward went on grimly. “You see what I mean. The good doctor and I have been having words about this already. D’you know that they’ve even been trying it on with me?” And leaping to his feet once again Edward seized a bread-knife and began to slash away at the foliage with it as if it were a machete. And it was true that the growth of ferns, creepers, rubber-plants and God only knew what had become so luxuriant as to be altogether beyond a joke. Whereas previously the majority of the chairs and tables had been available, here and there, in clearings joined by a network