Some Do Not . . ._ A Novel - Ford Madox Ford [36]
Tietjens made himself a little more rigid.
'She was, as a matter of fact, a bookmaker's secretary,' Tietjens said. 'I imagine I have the right to walk where I like, with whom I like. And no one has the right to question it...I don't mean you, sir. But no one else.'
The General said puzzledly:
'It's you brilliant fellows...They all say you're brilliant...'
Tietjens said:
'You might let your rooted distrust of intelligence...It's natural of course; but you might let it allow you to be just to me. I assure you there was nothing discreditable.'
The General interrupted:
'If you were a stupid young subaltern and told me you were showing your mother's new cook the way to the Piccadilly tube, I'd believe you...But, then, no young subaltern would do such a damn, blasted, tomfool thing! Paul said you walked beside her like the king in his glory! Through the crush outside the Haymarket, of all places in the world!'
'I'm obliged to Sandbach for his commendation...' Tietjens said. He thought for a moment. Then he said:
'I was trying to get that young woman...I was taking her out to lunch from her office at the bottom of the Haymarket...To get her off a friend's back. That is, of course, between ourselves.'
He said this with great reluctance because he didn't want to cast reflection on Macmaster's taste, for the young lady had been by no means one to be seen walking with a really circumspect public official. But he had said nothing to indicate. Macmaster, and he had other friends.
The General choked.
'Upon my soul,' he said, 'what do you take me for?' He repeated the words as if he were amazed. 'If,' he said, 'my G.S.O. II--who's the stupidest ass I know--told me such a damn-fool lie as that I'd have him broke to-morrow.' He went on expostulatorily: 'Damn it all, it's the first duty of a soldier--it's the first duty of all Englishmen--to be able to tell a good lie in answer to a charge. But a lie like that..:
He broke off breathless, then he began again:
'Hang it all, I told that lie to my grandmother and my grandfather told it to his grandfather. And they call you brilliant!...' He paused and then asked reproachfully: 'Or do you think I'm in a state of-senile decay?'
Tietjens said:
'I know you, sir, to be the smartest general of division in the British Army. I leave you to draw your own conclusions as to why I said what I did...' He had told the exact truth, but he was not sorry to be disbelieved.
The General said:
'Then I'll take it that you tell me a lie meaning me to know that it's a lie. That's quite proper. I take it you mean to keep the woman officially out of it. But look here, Chrissie'--his tone took a deeper seriousness--If the woman that's come between you and Sylvia--that's broken up your home, damn it, for that's what it is!--is little Miss Wannop...'
'Her name was Julia Mandelstein,' Tietjens said.
The General said:
'Yes! Yes! Of course!...But if it is the little Wannop girl and it's not gone too far...Put her back...Put her back, as you used to be a good boy! It would be too hard on the mother...'
Tietjens, said:
'General! I give you my word...'
The General said:
'I'm not asking any questions, my boy; I'm talking now. You've told me the story you want told and it's the story I'll tell for you! But that little piece is...she used to be!...as straight as a die. I daresay you know better than I. Of course when they get among the wild women there's no knowing what happens to them. They say they're all whores...I beg your pardon, if you like the girl...'
'Is Miss Wannop,' Tietjens asked, 'the girl who demonstrates?'
'Sandbach said,' the General went on, 'that he couldn't see from where he was whether that girl was the same as the one in the Haymarket. But he thought it was...He was pretty certain.'
'As he's married your sister,' Tietjens said, 'one can't impugn his taste in women.'
'I say again, I'm not asking,' the General said. 'But I do say again too: put her back. Her father was a great friend of your father's: or your father was a great admirer of his. They say he was the most brilliant brain of the party.'