The Weird Part 59

The instantaneity of the service (apart from the fact that Maybury was late) could be accounted for by the large number of the staff. There were quite certainly four men, all, like the lad, in white jackets; and two women, both in dark blue dresses. The six of them were noticeably deft and well setup, though all were past their first youth. Maybury could not see more because he had been placed with his back to the end wall which contained the service door (as well as, on the other side, the door by which the guests entered from the lounge). At every table, the single place had been positioned in that way, so that the occupant saw neither the service door opening and shutting, nor, in front of him, the face of another diner.

As a matter of fact, Maybury was the only single diner on that side of the room (he had been given the second table down, but did not think that anyone had entered to sit behind him at the first table); and, on the other side of the room, there was only a single diner also, he thought, a lady, seated at the second table likewise, and thus precisely parallel with him.

There was an enormous quant.i.ty of soup, in what Maybury realized was an unusually deep and wide plate. The amplitude of the plate had at first been masked by the circ.u.mstance that round much of its wide rim was inscribed, in large black letters, THE HOSPICE; rather in the style of a baby's plate, Maybury thought, if both lettering and plate had not been so immense. The soup itself was unusually weighty too: it undoubtedly contained eggs as well as pulses, and steps have been taken to add 'thickening' also.

Maybury was hungry, as has been said, but he was faintly disconcerted to realize that one of the middle-aged women was standing quietly behind him as he consumed the not inconsiderable number of final spoonfuls. The spoons seemed very large also, at least for modern usages. The woman removed his empty plate with a rea.s.suring smile.

The second course was there. As she set it before him, the woman spoke confidentially in his ear of the third course: 'It's turkey tonight.' Her tone was exactly that in which promise is conveyed to a little boy of his favourite dish. It was as if she were Maybury's nanny; even though Maybury had never had a nanny, not exactly. Meanwhile, the second course was a proliferating elaboration of pasta; plainly home-made pasta, probably fabricated that morning. Cheese, in fairly large granules, was strewn across the heap from a large porcelain bowl without Maybury being noticeably consulted.

'Can I have something to drink? A lager will do.'

'We have nothing like that, sir.' It was as if Maybury knew this perfectly well, but she was prepared to play with him. There might, he thought, have been some warning that the place was unlicensed.

'A pity,' said Maybury.

The woman's inflections were beginning to bore him; and he was wondering how much the rich food, all palpably fresh, and home-grown, and of almost unattainable quality, was about to cost him. He doubted very much whether it would be sensible to think of staying the night at The Hospice.

'When you have finished your second course, you may have the opportunity of a word with Mr Falkner.' Maybury recollected that, after all, he had started behind all the others. He must doubtless expect to be a little hustled while he caught up with them. In any case, he was not sure whether or not the implication was that Mr Falkner might, under certain circ.u.mstances, unlock a private liquor store.

Obviously it would help the catching-up process if Maybury ate no more than two-thirds of the pasta fantasy. But the woman in the dark blue dress did not seem to see it like that.

'Can't you eat any more?' she enquired baldly, and no longer addressing Maybury as sir.

'Not if I'm to attempt another course,' replied Maybury, quite equably.

'It's turkey tonight,' said the woman. 'You know how turkey just slips down you?' She still had not removed his plate.

'It's very good,' said Maybury firmly. 'But I've had enough.'

It was as if the woman were not used to such conduct, but, as this was no longer a nursery, she took the plate away.

There was even a slight pause, during which Maybury tried to look round the room without giving an appearance of doing so. The main point seemed to be that everyone was dressed rather formally: all the men in 'dark suits', all the women in 'long dresses'. There was a wide variety of age, but, curiously again, there were more men than women. Conversation still seemed far from general. Maybury could not help wondering whether the solidity of the diet did not contribute here. Then it occurred to him that it was as if most of these people had been with one another for a long time, during which things to talk about might have run out, and possibly with little opportunity for renewal through fresh experience. He had met that in hotels. Naturally, Maybury could not, without seeming rude, examine the one-third of the a.s.sembly which was seated behind him.

His slab of turkey appeared. He had caught up, even though by cheating. It was an enormous pile, steaming slightly, and also seeping slightly with a colourless, oily fluid. With it appeared five separate varieties of vegetable in separate dishes, brought on a tray; and a sauceboat, apparently for him alone, of specially compounded fluid, dark red and turgid. A sizeable mound of stuffing completed the repast. The middle-aged woman set it all before him swiftly but, this time, silently, with unmistakable reserve.

The truth was that Maybury had little appet.i.te left. He gazed around, less furtively, to see how the rest were managing. He had to admit that, as far as he could see, they were one and all eating as if their lives depended on it: old as well as young, female as well as male; it was as if all had spent a long, unfed day in the hunting field. 'Eating as if their lives depended on it,' he said again to himself; then, struck by the absurdity of the phrase when applied to eating, he picked up his knife and fork with resolution.

'Is everything to your liking, Mr Maybury?'

Again he had been gently taken by surprise. Mr Falkner was at his shoulder: a sleek man in the most beautiful dinner jacket, an instantly ameliorative maitre d'hotel.

'Perfect, thank you,' said Maybury. 'But how did you know my name?'

'We like to remember the names of all our guests,' said Falkner, smiling.

'Yes, but how did you find out my name in the first place?'

'We like to think we are proficient at that too, Mr Maybury.'

'I am much impressed,' said Maybury. Really he felt irritated (irritated, at least), but his firm had trained him never to display irritation outside the family circle.

'Not at all,' said Falkner genially. 'Whatever our vocation in life, we may as well do what we can to excel.' He settled the matter by dropping the subject. 'Is there anything I can get for you? Anything you would like?'

'No, thank you very much. I have plenty.'

'Thank you, Mr Maybury. If you wish to speak to me at any time, I am normally available in my office. Now I will leave you to the enjoyment of your meal. I may tell you, in confidence, that there is steamed fruit pudding to follow.'

He went quietly forward on his round of the room, speaking to perhaps one person in three at the long, central table; mainly, it seemed, to the older people, as was no doubt to be expected. Falkner wore very elegant black suede shoes, which reminded Maybury of the injury to his own leg, about which he had done nothing, though it might well be septic, even endangering the limb itself, perhaps the whole system.

He was considerably enraged by Falkner's performance about his name, especially as he could find no answer to the puzzle. He felt that he had been placed, almost deliberately, at an undignified disadvantage. Falkner's patronizing conduct in this trifling matter was of a piece with the nannying att.i.tude of the waitress. Moreover, was the unexplained discovery of his name such a trifle, after all? Maybury felt that it had made him vulnerable in other matters also, however undefined. It was the last straw in the matter of his eating any more turkey. He no longer had any appet.i.te whatever.

He began to pa.s.s everything systematically through his mind, as he had been trained to do; and almost immediately surmised the answer. In his car was a blue-bound file which on its front bore his name: 'Mr Lucas Maybury'; and this file he supposed that he must have left, name-upwards, on the driving seat, as he commonly did. All the same, the name was merely typed on a sticky label, and would not have been easy to make out through the car window. But he then remembered the floodlight. Even so, quite an effort had been necessary on someone's part, and he wondered who had made that effort. Again he guessed the answer: it was Falkner himself who had been snooping. What would Falkner have done if Maybury had parked the car outside the floodlighted area, as would have been perfectly possible? Used a torch? Perhaps even skeleton keys?

That was absurd.

And how much did the whole thing matter? People in business often had these little vanities, and often had he encountered them. People would do almost anything to feed them. Probably he had one or two himself. The great thing when meeting any situation was to extract the essentials and to concentrate upon them.

To some of the people Falkner was speaking for quite a period of time, while, as Maybury noticed, those seated next to them, previously saying little in most cases, now said nothing at all, but confined themselves entirely to eating. Some of the people at the long table were not merely elderly, he had observed, but positively senile: drooling, watery-eyed, and almost hairless; but even they seemed to be eating away with the best. Maybury had the horrid idea about them that eating was all they did do. 'They lived for eating': another nursery expression, Maybury reflected; and at last he had come upon those of whom it might be true. Some of these people might well relate to rich foods as alcoholics relate to excisable spirits. He found it more nauseating than any sottishness; of which he had seen a certain amount.

Falkner was proceeding so slowly, showing so much professional consideration, that he had not yet reached the lady who sat by herself parallel with Maybury, on the other side of the room. At her Maybury now stared more frankly. Black hair reached her shoulders, and she wore what appeared to be a silk evening dress, a real 'model', Maybury thought (though he did not really know), in many colours; but her expression was of such sadness, suffering, and exhaustion that Maybury was sincerely shocked, especially as once she must, he was sure, have been beautiful, indeed, in a way, still was. Surely so unhappy, even tragic, a figure as that could not be ploughing through a big slab of turkey with five vegetables? Without caution or courtesy, Maybury half rose to his feet in order to look.

'Eat up, sir. Why you've hardly started!' His tormentor had quietly returned to him. What was more, the tragic lady did appear to be eating.

'I've had enough. I'm sorry, it's very good, but I've had enough.'

'You said that before, sir, and, look, here you are, still eating away.' He knew that he had, indeed, used those exact words. Crises are met by cliches.

'I've eaten quite enough.'

'That's not necessarily for each of us to say, is it?'

'I want no more to eat of any kind. Please take all this away and just bring me a black coffee. When the time comes, if you like. I don't mind waiting.' Though Maybury did mind waiting, it was necessary to remain in control.

The woman did the last thing Maybury could have expected her to do. She picked up his laden plate (he had at least helped himself to everything) and, with force, dashed it on the floor. Even then the plate itself did not break, but gravy and five vegetables and rich stuffing spread across the thick, patterned, wall-to-wall carpet. Complete, in place of comparative, silence followed in the whole room; though there was still, as Maybury even then observed, the muted clashing of cutlery. Indeed, his own knife and fork were still in his hands.

Falkner returned round the bottom end of the long table.

'Mulligan,' he asked, 'how many more times?' His tone was as quiet as ever. Maybury had not realized that the alarming woman was Irish.

'Mr Maybury,' Falkner continued 'I entirely understand your difficulty. There is naturally no obligation to partake of anything you do not wish. I am only sorry for what has happened. It must seem very poor service on our part. Perhaps you would prefer to go into our lounge? Would you care simply for some coffee?'

'Yes,' said Maybury, concentrating upon the essential. 'I should, please. Indeed, I had already ordered a black coffee. Could I possibly have a pot of it?'

He had to step with care over the mess on the floor, looking downwards. As he did so, he saw something most curious. A central rail ran the length of the long table a few inches above the floor. To this rail, one of the male guests was attached by a fetter round his left ankle.

Maybury, now considerably shaken, had rather expected to be alone in the lounge until the coffee arrived. But he had no sooner dropped down upon one of the ma.s.sive sofas (it could easily have seated five in a row, at least two of them stout), than the handsome boy appeared from somewhere and proceeded merely to stand about, as at an earlier phase of the evening. There were no ill.u.s.trated papers to be seen, nor even brochures about Beautiful Britain, and Maybury found the lad's presence irksome. All the same, he did not quite dare to say, 'There's nothing I want.' He could think of nothing to say or to do; nor did the boy speak, or seem to have anything particular to do either. It was obvious that his presence could hardly be required there when everyone was in the dining room. Presumably they would soon be pa.s.sing on to fruit pudding. Maybury was aware that he had yet to pay his bill. There was a baffled but considerable pause.

Much to his surprise, it was Mulligan who in the end brought him the coffee. It was a single cup, not a pot; and even the cup was of such a size that Maybury, for once that evening, could have done with a bigger. At once he divined that coffee was outside the regime of the place, and that he was being specially compensated, though he might well have to pay extra for it. He had vaguely supposed that Mulligan would have been helping to mop up in the dining-room. Mulligan, in fact, seemed quite undisturbed.

'Sugar, sir?' she said.

'One lump, please,' said Maybury, eyeing the size of the cup.

He did not fail to notice that, before going, she exchanged a glance with the handsome lad. He was young enough to be her son, and the glance might mean anything or nothing.

While Maybury was trying to make the most of his meagre coffee and to ignore the presence of the lad, who must surely be bored, the door from the dining-room opened, and the tragic lady from the other side of the room appeared.

'Close the door, will you?' she said to the boy. The boy closed the door, and then stood about again, watching them.

'Do you mind if I join you?' the lady asked Maybury.

'I should be delighted.'

She was really rather lovely in her melancholy way, her dress was as splendid as Maybury had supposed, and there was in her demeanour an element that could only be called stately. Maybury was unaccustomed to that.

She sat, not at the other end of the sofa, but at the centre of it. It struck Maybury that the rich way she was dressed might almost have been devised to harmonize with the rich way the room was decorated. She wore complicated, oriental-looking earrings, with pink translucent stones, like rose diamonds (perhaps they were diamonds); and silver shoes. Her perfume was heavy and distinctive.

'My name is Cecile Celimena,' she said. 'How do you do? I am supposed to be related to the composer, Chaminade.'

'How do you do?' said Maybury. 'My name is Lucas Maybury, and my only important relation is Solway Short. In fact, he's my cousin.'

They shook hands. Her hand was very soft and white, and she wore a number of rings, which Maybury thought looked real and valuable (though he could not really tell). In order to shake hands with him, she turned the whole upper part of her body towards him.

'Who is that gentleman you mention?' she asked.

'Solway Short? The racing motorist. You must have seen him on the television.'

'I do not watch the television.'

'Quite right. It's almost entirely a waste of time.'

'If you do not wish to waste time, why are you at The Hospice?'

The lad, still observing them, shifted, noticeably, from one leg to the other.

'I am here for dinner. I am just pa.s.sing through.'

'Oh! You are going then?'

Maybury hesitated. She was attractive and, for the moment, he did not wish to go. 'I suppose so. When I've paid my bill and found out where I can get some petrol. My tank's almost empty. As a matter of fact, I'm lost. I've lost my way.'

'Most of us here are lost.'

'Why here? What makes you come here?'

'We come for the food and the peace and the warmth and the rest.'

'A tremendous amount of food, I thought.'

'That's necessary. It's the restorative, you might say.'

'I'm not sure that I quite fit in,' said Maybury. And then he added: 'I shouldn't have thought that you did either.'

'Oh, but I do! Whatever makes you think not?' She seemed quite anxious about it, so that Maybury supposed he had taken the wrong line.

He made the best of it. 'It's just that you seem a little different from what I have seen of the others.'

'In what way, different?' she asked, really anxious, and looking at him with concentration.

'To start with, more beautiful. You are very beautiful,' he said, even though the lad was there, certainly taking in every word.

'That is kind of you to say.' Unexpectedly she stretched across the short distance between them and took his hand. 'What did you say your name was?'

'Lucas Maybury.'

'Do people call you Luke?'

'No, I dislike it. I'm not a Luke sort of person.'

'But your wife can't call you Lucas?' 'I'm afraid she does.' It was a fishing question he could have done without.

'Lucas? Oh no, it's such a cold name.' She was still holding his hand.

'I'm very sorry about it. Would you like me to order you some coffee?'

'No, no. Coffee is not right; it is stimulating, wakeful, over-exciting, unquiet.' She was gazing at him again with sad eyes.

'This is a curious place,' said Maybury, giving her hand a squeeze. It was surely becoming remarkable that none of the other guests had yet appeared.

'I could not live without The Hospice,' she replied.

'Do you come here often?' It was a ludicrously conventional form of words.

'Of course. Life would be impossible otherwise. All those people in the world without enough food, living without love, without even proper clothes to keep the cold out.'

During dinner it had become as hot in the lounge, Maybury thought, as it had been in the dining-room.

Her tragic face sought his understanding. None the less, the line she had taken up was not a favourite of his. He preferred problems to which solutions were at least possible. He had been warned against the other kind.

'Yes,' he said. 'I know what you mean, of course.'

'There are millions and millions of people all over the world with no clothes at all,' she cried, withdrawing her hand.

'Not quite,' Maybury said, smiling. 'Not quite that. Or not yet.'

He knew the risks perfectly well, and thought as little about them as possible. One had to survive, and also to look after one's dependants.

'In any case,' he continued, trying to lighten the tone, 'that hardly applies to you. I have seldom seen a more gorgeous dress.'