‘Oh, yes,’ said Brett. ‘Enormous.’
Braddocks called to me from a table. ‘Barnes,’ he said, ‘have a drink. That girl of yours got in a frightful row.’
‘What about?’
‘Something the patronne’s daughter said. A corking row. She was splendid, you know. Showed her yellow card and demanded the patronne’s daughter’s too. I say it was a row.’
‘What finally happened?’
‘Oh, someone took her home. Not a bad-looking girl. Wonderful command of the idiom. Do stay and have a drink.’
‘No,’ I said. ‘I must shove off. Seen Cohn?’
‘He went home with Frances,’ Mrs. Braddocks put in.
‘Poor chap, he looks awfully down,’ Braddocks said.
‘I dare say he is,’ said Mrs. Braddocks.
‘I have to shove off,’ I said. ‘Good night.’
I said good night to Brett at the bar. The count was buying champagne. ‘Will you take a glass of wine with us, sir?’ he asked.
‘No. Thanks awfully. I have to go.’
‘Really going?’ Brett asked.
‘Yes,’ I said. ‘I’ve got a rotten headache.’
‘I’ll see you to-morrow?’
‘Come in at the office.’
‘Hardly.’
‘Well, where will I see you?’
‘Anywhere around five o’clock.’
‘Make it the other side of town then.’
‘Good. I’ll be at the Crillon at five.’
‘Try and be there,’ I said.
‘Don’t worry,’ Brett said. ‘I’ve never let you down, have I?’
‘Heard from Mike?’
‘Letter to-day.’
‘Good night, sir,’ said the count.
I went out on to the sidewalk and walked down toward the Boulevard St. Michel, passed the tables of the Rotonde, still crowded, looked across the street at the Dôme, its tables running out to the edge of the pavement. Someone waved at me from a table, I did not see who it was, and went on. I wanted to get home. The Boulevard Montparnasse was deserted. Lavigne’s was closed tight, and they were stacking the tables outside the Closerie des Lilas. I passed Ney’s statue standing among the new-leaved chestnut-trees in the arc-light.
There was a faded purple wreath leaning against the base. I stopped and read the inscription: from the Bonapartist Groups, some date; I forget. He looked very fine, Marshal Ney in his top-boots, gesturing with his sword among the green new horse-chestnut leaves. My flat was just across the street, a little way down the Boulevard St. Michel.
There was a light in the concierge’s room and I knocked on the door and she gave me my mail. I wished her good night and went upstairs. There were two letters and some papers. I looked at them under the gaslight in the dining-room. The letters were from the States. One was a bank statement. It showed a balance of $2,432.60. I got out my cheque-book and deducted four cheques drawn since the first of the month, and discovered I had a balance of $1,832.60. I wrote this on the back of the statement. The other letter was a wedding announcement. Mr. and Mrs.
Aloysius Kirby announce the marriage of their daughter Katherine—I knew neither the girl nor the man she was marrying. They must be circularizing the town. It was a funny name. I felt sure I could remember anybody with a name like Aloysius. It was a good Catholic name. There was a crest on the announcement. Like Zizi the Greek duke. And that count. The count was funny. Brett had a title, too. Lady Ashley. To hell with Brett. To hell with you, Lady Ashley.
I lit the lamp beside the bed, turned off the gas, and opened the wide windows. The bed was far back from the windows, and I sat with the windows open and undressed by the bed. Outside a night train, running on the street-car tracks, went by carrying vegetables to the markets. They were noisy at night when you could not sleep. Undressing, I looked at myself in the mirror of the big armoire beside the bed. That was a typically French way to furnish a room. Practical, too, I suppose. Of all the ways to be wounded.
I suppose it was funny. I put on my pyjamas and got into bed. I had the two bull-fight papers, and I took their wrappers off. One was orange. The other yellow. They would both have the same news, so whichever I read first would spoil the other. Le Toril was the better paper, so I started to read it. I read it all the way through, including the Petite Correspondance and the Cornigrams. I blew out the lamp. Perhaps I would be able to sleep.
My head started to work. The old grievance. Well, it was a rotten way to be wounded and flying on a joke front like the Italian. In the Italian hospital we were going to form a society. It had a funny name in Italian. I wonder what became of the others, the Italians. That was in the Ospedale Maggiore in Milano, Padiglione Ponte. The next building was the Padiglione Zonda. There was a statute of Ponte, or maybe it was Zonda. That was where the liaison colonel came to visit me. That was funny. That was about the first funny thing.
I was all bandaged up. But they had told him about it. Then he made that wonderful speech: ‘You, a foreigner, an Englishman (any foreigner was an Englishman), have given more than your life.’ What a speech! I would like to have it illuminated to hang in the office. He never laughed. He was putting himself in my place, I guess. ‘Che mala fortuna! Che mala fortuna!’
I never used to realize it, I guess. I try and play it along and just not make trouble for people. Probably I never would have had any trouble if I hadn’t run into Brett when they shipped me to England. I suppose she only wanted what she couldn’t have. Well, people were that way. To hell with people. The Catholic Church had an awfully good way of handling all that. Good advice, anyway. Not to think about it. Oh, it was swell advice. Try and take it sometime. Try and take it.
I lay awake thinking and my mind jumping around. Then I couldn’t keep away from it, and I started to think about Brett and all the rest of it went away. I was thinking about Brett and my mind stopped jumping around and started to go in sort of smooth waves. Then all of a sudden I started to cry. Then after a while it was better and I lay in bed and listened to the heavy trams go by and way down the street, and then I went to sleep.
I woke up. There was a row going on outside. I listened and I thought I recognized a voice. I put on a dressing-gown and went to the door. The concierge was talking downstairs. She was very angry. I heard my name and called down the stairs.
‘Is that you, Monsieur Barnes?’ the concierge called.
‘Yes. It’s me.’
‘There’s a species of woman here who’s waked the whole street up. What kind of dirty business at this time of night! She says she must see you. I’ve told her you’re asleep.’
Then I heard Brett’s voice. Half asleep I had been sure it was Georgette. I don’t know why. She could not have known my address.
‘Will you send her up, please?’
Brett came up the stairs. I saw she was quite drunk. ‘Silly thing to do,’ she said. ‘Make an awful row. I say, you weren’t asleep, were you?’
‘What did you think I was doing?’
‘Don’t know. What time is it?’
I looked at the clock. It was half-past four. ‘Had no idea what hour it was,’ Brett said. ‘I say, can a chap sit down? Don’t be cross, darling. Just left the count. He brought me here.’
‘What’s he like?’ I was getting brandy and soda and glasses.
‘Just a little,’ said Brett. ‘Don’t try and make me drunk. The count? Oh, rather. He’s quite one of us.’
‘Is he a count?’
‘Here’s how. I rather think so, you know. Deserves to be, anyhow. Knows hell’s own amount about people. Don’t know where he got it all. Owns a chain of sweetshops in the States.’
She sipped at her glass.
‘Think he called it a chain. Something like that. Linked them all up. Told me a little about it. Damned interesting. He’s one of us, though. Oh, quite. No doubt. One can always tell.’
She took another drink.
‘How do I buck on about all this? You don’t mind, do you? He’s putting up for Zizi, you know.’
‘Is Zizi really a duke, too?’
‘I shouldn’t wonder. Greek, you know. Rotten painter. I rather liked the count.’
‘Where did you go with him?’
‘Oh, everywhere. He just brought me here now. Offered me ten thousand dollars to go to Biarritz with him. How much is that in pounds?’
‘Around two thousand.’
‘Lot of money. I told him I couldn’t do it. He was awfully nice about it. Told him I knew too many people in Biarritz.’
Brett laughed.
‘I say, you are slow on the up-take,’ she said. I had only sipped my brandy and soda. I took a long drink.
‘That’s better. Very funny,’ Brett said. ‘Then he wanted me to go to Cannes with him. Told him I knew too many people in Cannes. Monte Carlo. Told him I knew too many people in Monte Carlo. Told him I knew too many people everywhere. Quite true, too. So I asked him to bring me here.’
She looked at me, her hand on the table, her glass raised. ‘Don’t look like that,’ she said. ‘Told him I was in love with you. True, too. Don’t look like that. He was damn nice about it. Wants to drive us out to dinner to-morrow night. Like
