Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh [108]
'One gay evening,' I said, 'we played roulette till two o'clock, next door in the sittingroom, and our host passed out.'
'Goodness. It sounds very disreputable. Have you been behaving, Charles? You haven't been picking up sirens?'
'There was scarcely a woman about. I spent most of the time with Julia.'
'Oh, good. I always wanted to bring you together. She's one of my friends I knew you'd like. I expect you were a godsend to her. She's had rather a gloomy time lately. I don't expect she mentioned it, but...' my wife proceeded to relate a current version of Julia's journey to New York. 'I'll ask her to cocktails this morning,' she concluded.
Julia came among the others, and it was happiness enough, now merely to be near her.
'I hear you've been looking after my husband for me,' my wife said.
'Yes, we've become very matey. He and I and a man whose name we don't know.'
'Mr Kramm, what have you done to your arm?'
'It was the bathroom floor, ' said Mr Kramm, and explained at length how he had fallen.
That night the captain dined at his table and the circle was complete, for claimants came to the chairs on the Bishop's right, two Japanese who expressed deep interest in his projects for world-brotherhood. The captain was full of chaff at Julia's endurance in the storm, offering to engage her as a seaman; years of sea-going had given him jokes for every occasion. My wife, fresh from the beauty parlour, was unmarked by her three days of distress, and in the eyes of many seemed to outshine Julia, whose sadness had gone and been replaced by an incommunicable content and tranquillity; incommunicable save to me; she and I, separated by the crowd, sat alone together close enwrapped, as we had lain in each other's arms the night before.
'There was a gala spirit in the ship that night. Though it meant rising at dawn to pack, everyone was determined that for this one night he would enjoy the luxury the storm had denied him. There was no solitude. Every corner of the ship was thronged; dance music and high, excited chatter, stewards darting everywhere with trays of glasses, the voice of the officer in charge of tombola—'Kelly's eye—number one; legs, eleven; and we'll Shake the Bag'—Mrs Stuyvesant Oglander in a paper cap, Mr Kramm and his bandages, the two Japanese decorously throwing paper streamers and hissing like geese.
I did not speak to Julia, alone, all that evening.
We met for a minute next day on the starboard side of the ship while everyone else crowded to port to see the officials come aboard and to gaze at the green coastline of Devon.
'What are your plans?'
'London for a bit, ' she said.
'Celia's going straight home. She wants to see the children.'
'You too?'
'No.'
'In London then.'
'Charles, the little red-haired man Foulenough. Did you see? Two plain clothes police have taken him off.'
'I missed it. There was such a crowd on that side of the ship.'
'I found out the trains and sent a telegram. We shall be home by dinner. The children will be asleep. Perhaps we might wake Johnjohn up, just for once.'
'You go down,' I said. 'I shall have to stay in London.'
'Oh, but Charles, you must come. You haven't seen Caroline.'
'Will she change much in a week or two?'
'Darling, she changes every day.'
'Then what's the point of seeing her now? I'm sorry, my dear, but I must get the pictures unpacked and see how they've travelled. I must fix up for the exhibition right away.'
'Must you?' she said, but I knew that her resistance ended when I appealed to the mysteries of my trade. 'It's very disappointing. Besides, I don't know if Andrew and Cynthia will be out of the flat. They took it till the end of the month.'
'I can go to an hotel.'
'But that's so grim. I can't bear you to be alone your first night home. I'll stay and go down tomorrow.'
'You mustn't disappoint the children.'
'No.' Her children, my art, the two mysteries of our trades.
'Will you come for the week-end?'
'If I can.'
'All British passports to the smoking-room, please,' said a steward.
'I've arranged with that sweet Foreign Office man at our table to get us off early with him,' said my wife.