by Henry Green
'I couldn't say, Miss.'
Claire then took her turn, 'Where did he go when he left you?' she asked him.
'He told me to meet him here, Madam.'
Both girls, as though by consent, dropped it and left well alone. It had come to both of them that where he was now of course was in the lavatory.
Alex drove up, still haunted by how late he was. Getting out he screamed for porters and, when he found one, he told him they must meet again at the registration place, he had no time, he must fly and he rushed off, forgetting to pay his taxi. The driver was at once hysterically angry, called out warnings to everyone near about Alex, said to that porter, 'Wait for me, mate,' drove his taxi nine feet forward to where he thought it would cause more obstruction, said, 'Where's a bloody copper?' and with Alex's luggage, and his porter, also went in under into one of those tunnels and was gone.
So now at last all of this party is in one place, and, even if they have not yet all of them come across each other, their baggage is collected in the Registration Hall. Where, earlier, hundreds had made their way to this station thousands were coming in now, it was the end of a day for them, the beginning of a time for our party.
Anyone who found herself alone with Julia could not help feeling they had been left in charge. Again there was so much luggage round about in piles like an exaggerated grave yard, with the owners of it and their porters like mourners with the undertakers' men, and so much agitation on one hand with subdued respectful indifference on the other that this uneasiness had at last been passed on to Claire. Several other passengers were nearly in hysterics. And as she was used to leaving all her worries to her husband, who had to do everything for her, this was one of those moments when she missed him. She felt almost cross with Julia for being so helpless.
She said to Julia there did not seem to be much point in waiting for Evelyn to come back, they might try to get some of their luggage registered now, it would be such a rush when they did begin with all the mountains of stuff already waiting. Looking up from where she sat she put this to her porter drooping over his barrow. He told her nothing was being accepted for registration on account of there being no trains running as she could see for herself; he seemed pleased, he spat, and then became more despondent.
When once she had put her anxiety into words it was as though she had screamed after having tried not to for some time, when in pain. She might easily have got into the state that woman was in there, whose hat had all but fallen over her face, when she saw Alex waving, waving and smiling to them while making his way. He kissed them both while she was still saying 'why, here's Alex.' He asked where was Max, not here he supposed, and they said of course not. Claire explained how appalling it was they would not register any luggage, but already her fears had left her and she was joking and he laughed and said they never would if they could possibly avoid it, and they all laughed, too, and spoke at once. 'Anyway,' he said, 'they can't surely expect us to sleep here.'
'Alex darling, what is it about this fog, there isn't any where we are, isn't it rather tiresome of them?'
'They say it's down to the ground outside London, you see, Julia, and they can't get through, why, I can't imagine.'
'But do you think they're really doing anything about it?'
He said they must be and then described his adventures while on his way to them. They laughed again. Then he asked if they had heard the latest about Embassy Richard, he had been told the postmark on that letter was St John's Wood, which must mean Charlie Troupe had sent it. Claire said that if he meant the letter enclosing his advertisement for The Times then she had heard from someone in that office there had been no postmark at all, it had come unstamped. Alex said that if it did not have a stamp then it would have had one of those things which show you what you have to pay, and that must have been postmarked. Usually anything that had not been stamped was covered with postmarks, and even times of posting, and they rang your bell to tell you. 'It's rather like travelling on trains,' he said, 'without your ticket. They make you pay and write you out one, putting down where you got on and where you are going to.' Claire said yes, but you could not ask letters where they had been posted, and so this argument might have gone on if Miss Henderson had not returned. She was quite sure any unstamped letter would have two postmarks.
Edwards asked Julia, who had not been paying attention, what was to be done about all this luggage. She said she did not know and wasn't it awful. 'You'd better ask Miss Henderson, she has just been to try and find out.'
Now what Evelyn Henderson had in mind was this: she had most of their party in one place and it would be best to keep them here until all were assembled whatever their chances of getting a train later. She was not sure any trains would run ever again, but if she had said she was going and had closed up her flat then she would make every effort to get away. She was afraid some of them might go home and leave it for her to ring them all up if there was any chance of their getting off and that would mean muddles and incompetence and end by their not going at all. So she said:
'It can't be Charlie Troupe, the thing's absurd, he'd never do anything like that, he's an old friend of mine. About this beastly train I can't imagine why they are keeping us here like sheep in a market. An inspector was very nice and told me that the fog was lifting outside, so I don't suppose it will be too long now.'
'But, darling, in that case don't you think we ought to try and find Max at once?'
'I know, Julia, but Robert and Thomson have gone to look for him.'
'No, that's just it, they're hunting round for Angela. Don't you think we ought to send Edwards after him?'
Alex announced he could see Angela and then that she could see him. 'Can't you find her, there, behind that fat man, look she's waving, who's the individual with her?'
The individual with Miss Angela Crevy was her young man, Mr Robin Adams, who so objected to her going away with them, he hated them so much.
'There they all are,' Angela said to him, 'except I don't see Max.'
Yes, Mr Adams thought to himself, that was like Max, the offensive swine, it was like him not to turn up when this was his party so to speak, as he would be paying for them. It went against the grain to have men of his type paying for Angela. It was not her fault, she did not realize, but when she had been about a bit more she would be sorry she hadn't taken it in.
For a moment Mr Adams even felt jealous of Alex.
They had drawn nearer, they were all now waving to each other, or rather Angela was waving to them and they were all waving back. Looking at them Mr Adams thought what a bloody lot of swine they were. His one consolation was that he expected a most frightful display of affection when they were within speaking distance. He was not disappointed. Alex's voice came to them, high-pitched :
'Have you brought your bed with you, darling? I can't remember whether I told Mr Crump to pack mine, because we'll never get away from here,' and he added with intuition, 'Evelyna won't let us.'
Angela replied, 'but darling, didn't you pack a double bed for us then?' Her young man asked himself what could be in worse taste and then was heartened when he saw how badly they had taken it. Of course she did not know them well enough to say things of that kind he thought, and he was wrong. In their day they had made too many jokes in that strain, they were no longer amused, so they took it just as he had done for a different reason.
They were shaking hands and Angela told Claire she had seen her aunt, 'ages ago back there among all those people. I can't tell you what a time we've had trying to get to you, didn't we, Robin? It's such an enormous place, we couldn't find where to go and I got into such a fuss.'
A faint sound of cheering came from right away at the back of this station. Heads turned towards it and Julia could see a waiter who was looking out of one of the hotel windows and who seemed to be miles away, he looked so puny, joined by another at this window and both leaned out to watch something below them.
'What can it be?' she said under her bre
ath, 'I do feel so nervous.'
She thought here was their party laughing and shrieking as though nobody was going travelling; and then no one but her seemed to mind where Max was; where could her charms be? Jemima said she had put them in the cabin trunk but she would look in her dressing case, they were more likely to be there.
Squatting down apart she opened this case. Everything was packed in different coloured tissue papers. They were her summer things and as she lifted and recognized them she called to mind where she had last worn each one with Max. She often went away weekends to house parties and it often happened that he was there. If she had no memory for words she could always tell what she had worn each time she met him. Turning over her clothes as they had been packed she was turning over days.
Her porter sighed. He had enjoyed what he had seen of her things.
Thinking she might have been upset by their talk of Embassy Richard and because he liked to sympathize, Alex came up and asked if she was sick to death of their discussing that silly business and postmarks and all that. He found, as he had not realized, there was so much noise she could not hear what he said. Or perhaps she was crying. Julia still kept her head turned so he could not see but when he repeated himself she said yes, it was ridiculous wasn't it? He craned round and saw she was not crying and then she knew he was looking for tears.
'Oh dear,' she said, 'there are so many – too many people, aren't there?'
Alex told her he thought there would soon be many more and that he found it bewildering.
So did Mr Hignam, pushing his way through crowds, only his word for it was appalling. He felt probably they had already found Angela for themselves, there ought to be dogs, he thought, to find people for them. Though he would be sorry for dogs in this crowd, it was a wretched business, damp and cold, everyone looked as if they had had enough. How anyone was going to get a train was obviously more than the railway people could imagine. He found himself by a bar and that was an idea. They could not expect you for ever to go round shouting Angela where are you? It was crowded but he would fight through and have one.
Max was already drinking in this bar. After ringing up Amabel he had wondered if it would not be possible for her to trace where he was through the Exchange, so he had paid his bill and left. Then he had not felt up to meeting the others yet, and in any case he did not mind where they were. His feeling was he must get across the Channel and it was better to go with people than alone.
Forcing his way through, meeting half resistance everywhere and that hot smell of tea, cups guarded by elbows and half-turned bodies with 'mind my tea,' Robert thrust on and on. When small he had found patches of bamboo in his parents' garden and it was his romance at that time to force through them; they grew so thick you could not see what temple might lie in ruins just beyond. It was so now, these bodies so thick they might have been a store of tailors' dummies, water heated. They were so stiff they might as well have been soft, swollen bamboos in groves only because he had once pushed through these, damp and warm.
His ruined temple then appeared, still keeping to whisky, seated on one of those chrysanthemums with chromium-plated stalks which Miss Fellowes had observed. And she was still here, not feeling so well again, all of her turned in on herself, thrusting her load of darkness.
Robert was not so pleased to see Max, but both were polite enough to say hullo. Robert asked him if he had seen Claire's aunt by chance. Max did not hear, so let it pass. Robert asked again, this time he put it this way, that Claire had sent him to find her aunt. There was too much noise, it did not reach Max. He shouted back, 'what will you have?'
'I've ordered, thanks.'
'I suppose they sent you to find me,' Max said and now that he had begun to talk it seemed easier to hear. Robert answered no, it was Claire's aunt who was lost. Oh, said Max, and was she coming too, and once again Robert thought how odd he was, it was practically his party and yet he did not seem to know who would be coming and appeared to be quite ready to have Claire's aunt along, although they meant to be away three weeks. He explained that she had only come to see them off. 'Don't know the party,' Max said.
Robert told him all the others were waiting by their luggage until such time as it could be registered and Max asked where Edwards was. Max then said perhaps they had both of them better get back to the girls. Robert told him he thought there was no hurry, no trains were running yet.
'I know, old boy, but we can't leave your wife and the girls on their own like that'
'Well, Edwards is there and they've got their porters, they'll be all right.'
They'll be all right of course, but what we don't want them to do is to go back home, we must get off to-day.'
Again Robert thought it was unlike Max to say that. No one had been sure that he would even get to the station and yet here he was anxious they should all go with him.
'Let's keep them waiting once in a way,' Robert said, 'and anyway I can't go back without finding her. Have you seen Alex? I was to find him too.' And then it struck him he had never been sent to find Claire's aunt, Evelyn had wanted him to get hold of Alex and Angela and Max, but she had said nothing about Miss Fellowes. Why then had he been looking for the aunt? At that moment he saw Miss Fellowes.
'But, good God, Max, there she is.' Max did not seem to hear and he was pleased, it would have been too difficult to explain.
'And, my God, there's Claire's nannie.'
'Have another, Robert?'
'No, thanks. I say Max, the old girl doesn't look any too good, does she?'
'I haven't made her out yet. Well, now you've found her we can get along.'
'You don't understand, I wasn't sent to find her, but I don't like the way she looks, old boy. Do you see her there?'
'Do you mean that woman with the parcel?'
'Yes, holding the whisky. Look here, Max, she's sitting all on a skew.'
'Why not go up and ask her.'
'I can't. I say, would you mind just keeping an eye on her and I'll be off and bring Claire along?'
Max agreed and ordered another drink. Both had forgotten the nannies who sat anxiously by in silence. And that man, who had spoken to Miss Fellowes earlier, kept his attention on her, one or two others watched and each time this man looked away from her he winked.
As Hignam made his way back Alexander's taxi driver arrived. He came up to Alex and said 'how now.' Then he described what streets they had been through on their way and what his clock showed when he had left his cab. He said it was larceny to bilk taxi drivers. Alex asked how he could think he was trying to get away without paying, no trains could or would leave that evening or afternoon and anyway, he had paid, he said. His porter was brought in to witness, he had seen no money pass, Alex's voice became more shrill. Evelyn said it did seem ridiculous to be expected to pay twice when taxis were now 9d for the first mile. Then Julia stopped it by saying all this was more than she could stand and begged Alex not to be difficult. His answer was to move with the taxi driver out of earshot, where they went on gesticulating, though it was obvious now that they were suddenly on the best of terms.
'It did seem so silly, didn't it?' Julia said. 'Don't you think, darlings?'
'Oh, I don't know, poor Alex, but they seem to be getting on very well together now,' said Evelyna, and then went on 'here's Robert coming, Claire.'
'Well,' said his wife, as he came up, bullying him at once, 'I suppose you didn't find them. Angela's been here for ages, and so has Alex.'
'I say, Claire, a most extraordinary thing happened,' Robert said and drew her aside. 'You know I went to find Alex and Max as you told me. I got to the bar and thought I would go in and have a drink. Well, I found Max in there having one too and the next thing I did was to ask him if he had seen your aunt.'
'But you idiotic old thing, that wasn't what you were sent to do. Nobody mentioned her.'
'Yes, you did, Claire. But wait a moment. The odd thing was that just after I'd asked Max about her I actually did see her there.'
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'I don't see anything funny in it at all. You never could keep anything in your head. But you found Max anyway, although you don't seem to have been looking for him. Why are you always like this? Yesterday I asked you to put more coal on the fire and you passed me the egg.'
Robert thought no one would ever understand, it had been a shock to him, his mind had been full of the others and then he had blurted her name out and on that had seen her sitting there. Perhaps there was nothing in it but he wondered.
'Look here, she did not look at all well, there's something wrong, I think you ought to go and have a peek at her, I can't say I like the way she was. Why don't you and the others go along there? I left Max to keep his eye on things.'
'Don't be so ridiculous, she's resting that's all.'
'She had a glass of whisky.'
'Oh, Robert, darling, you do make me laugh. Who has ever heard of Auntie May being drunk or who could ever imagine such a thing?'
'I never said she was tight, all I said, or suggested rather, was that you should all go down there where Max is and that your aunt was very ill and needed you probably. I don't care. Where is Angela?'
'Oh, she's got a beau with her, they've wandered off. All right, darling, then I'll go but I don't want the others to know, do you understand, not a word to them. If Auntie May is ill I'll see to it. Now then you stay here.'
'What shall I say about you?'
'I'll be back in ten minutes.'
Julia came up to Robert with Miss Henderson and said really he had not been very clever, they had found Alex and Angela all for themselves. She then asked him where Claire had gone. He said, oh, she had been called away and that he had found Max, he was in the bar now and, it slipped out so to speak, that was where Claire was going.
'Is that where he is then? Has Claire gone to fetch him?' asked Evelyna.
'No, there was something else, I really don't know where she was going.'
Julia said she thought they had better send Edwards for Max. Miss Henderson said Claire would come back and that now they had all found each other it would be madness to separate once more. Julia said again, but wouldn't it be better to send Edwards to fetch Max. At this Edwards broke in and said Mr Adey had told him to stay where he was and that he would be along himself directly.
