Gently Continental (8 page)

GENTLY

No . . . did he?

TRUDI

(Looks at him quickly.)

STEPHEN

I met him too. He wasn't so bad. I'd say he was a decent sort of a cove. I got on with him all right, what few times I saw him.

GENTLY

I wonder what you talked about. You couldn't have very much in common.

STEPHEN

Oh, I don't know, one can always talk. The weather, that sort of jazz.

GENTLY

You're not in the estate business.

STEPHEN

Me? Never. I'm studying medicine.

GENTLY

You talked to him about that?

STEPHEN

No . . . once. Yes, once.

TRUDI

Stephen talks to everyone about medicine.

GENTLY

It's an honourable calling.

STEPHEN

I simply mentioned it, that's all, it just happened to come up. We were talking to him, Trudi and me. There's nothing special about that, is there?

GENTLY

(Shrugs.)

Trudi and you?

STEPHEN

Yes, for Heaven's sake, Trudi and me. What are you getting at?

TRUDI

It was really nothing. Stephen was here to play tennis.

STEPHEN

Yes, and that's how it came up. Trudi invited him to join a foursome. He said he was afraid of pulling a muscle—

TRUDI

Which gave Stephen a perfect opening.

STEPHEN

And I had a boast, that's about it. I'm an exhibitionist at the bottom of me.

GENTLY

I'd say you were doing yourself an injustice.

STEPHEN

No, not me. I'm an exhibitionist.

Gently surveys the young man mildly. Here again is a family likeness. Stephen has the same good-looking, spare features as his uncle, Doctor John. Much callower, of course, and without the sharp, cynical eyes; and Stephen is burlier, more clumsily made; but the doctor's stamp is on him. He has ceased to sprawl now, has come up straight in the deckchair. He returns Gently's gaze forcefully, is trying to stare him down.

GENTLY

What concerns me more specially is what Clooney may have said to you.

STEPHEN

The usual things.

GENTLY

Well, describe them.

STEPHEN

It wasn't anything that would help you.

TRUDI

About New York. He talked about that. How slow things seemed over here. I think he was homesick in a way, he just couldn't fit in here.

GENTLY

Why didn't he go home, then?

TRUDI

How should I know. He didn't tell us why not. Maybe he had some domestic trouble, you know, alimony payments. But that's guessing.

GENTLY

He mentioned his wife?

TRUDI

No. I don't remember that.

STEPHEN

They're always married, these Americans, have got a wife they're running away from.

TRUDI

Yes, he said something – what was it? About marriage out there being a bad business.

STEPHEN

You couldn't win, that's what he said. The woman had you on the hop. It sounded personal, I thought, as though he'd had some experience.

TRUDI

Yes, bitter.

STEPHEN

Bitter as hell. I wouldn't mind betting that was his trouble.

GENTLY

Hmn. You seem to have had quite a talk with him, after all.

STEPHEN

Well, I wouldn't say that. Just one thing leading to another.

GENTLY

And how did it lead to his thoughts on marriage?

STEPHEN

As a matter of fact, because of what I'd been saying. That I was studying for my M.D. He advised me to stay clear of women, not to marry till I was established.

GENTLY

Not much of a compliment to Miss Trudi.

TRUDI

Oh, he was only making fun.

GENTLY

While being bitter?

TRUDI

I – he didn't mean—

GENTLY

An interesting character, this American of yours.

STEPHEN

(Colouring.)

Just look here! We're doing our best to answer your questions. It's not as though we could tell you anything important, all this doesn't matter a rap. So at least you can stop sneering, pretending we're telling a pack of lies.

TRUDI

Stephen!

STEPHEN

I don't care, Trudi. It's like some sort of Inquisition.

TRUDI

He has to ask about Mr Clooney—

STEPHEN

Yes, but he doesn't have to be so sarcastic.

TRUDI

(Makes a little gesture.)

STEPHEN

All right, all right. You can put up with it if you like.

GENTLY

I'm quite sincere when I say he's interesting. His character seems so elusive. For instance, he scarcely spoke to other people, yet he let his hair down with you.

TRUDI

That's . . . exaggerating, perhaps.

GENTLY

Then this matter of his wife. Some people think he cared nothing about her, others that he cared very much.

STEPHEN

We said he was bitter, not that he cared.

GENTLY

I've been told he treated her as a joke. And even his physical appearance is questionable. Was he ugly – or handsome?

TRUDI

Oh – handsome.

GENTLY

(To Stephen.)

You agree?

STEPHEN

Why not? He wasn't bad-looking.

TRUDI

He was good-looking. (She blushes.) But you – you've seen him.

GENTLY

(Shrugs.)

TRUDI

Of course . . . now, I dare say . . .

STEPHEN

He was well set-up, quite distinguished. May have had a heart condition, but nothing exceptional for his age.

GENTLY

A heavy drinker.

TRUDI

Not heavy.

GENTLY

Drank scotch, reeked of whisky.

TRUDI

But that simply isn't true. Who has been telling you all this?

STEPHEN

He drank a bit, like all yanks, but you never saw him the worse for it. He had a colour, I'll say that. But he never struck you as a lush.

GENTLY

Not ugly, not a drunkard, not indifferent about his wife, not even notably secretive. Well, it'll sort itself out, no doubt. Perhaps he didn't have an accent, either?

TRUDI

He was an American, you could tell that.

GENTLY

A native born and bred American.

TRUDI

I – yes, born and bred.

GENTLY

No overtones – say, Italian?

TRUDI

Good Heavens no! He was not Italian.

GENTLY

What makes you so certain?

TRUDI

He . . . it is just quite impossible.

STEPHEN

You must know that, if you've looked at him. Wrong ethnological type.

GENTLY

His name suggests an Irish ancestry. But nobody suspects him of being Irish.

TRUDI

No, not Irish. I'd say . . . I don't know, one only thought of him as being American. But if there was an accent . . . a slight accent . . .

GENTLY

Yes?

TRUDI

Well . . . I don't know . . . Scandinavian?

STEPHEN

Of course, yes, that would be it. You're brilliant, Trudi – that's his type exactly: a Nordic dolichocephalic.

GENTLY

You are familiar with Scandinavians, Miss Trudi?

TRUDI

I . . . a little . . .

STEPHEN

It doesn't matter. She's right, absolutely right. Ethnologically right.

GENTLY

I wonder. As a mere layman I regarded Clooney as brachycephalous.

STEPHEN

(Staring.)

Ah, but his injury, he smashed his skull. That might give a false impression. There was a parietal collapse – Uncle John described it to me.

GENTLY

Oh, his skull was in a mess. But wouldn't that reduce the brachycephalic character?

STEPHEN

It might, of course – and then it might not. Depending entirely on the collapse.

TRUDI

This is silly, I know . . . but I'm not feeling too well.

STEPHEN

Trudi!

TRUDI

Sorry, Steve. It's just hearing you talk about . . .

STEPHEN

Oh hell, I should have known better.

TRUDI

I'm sorry. I'm just made that way. Just the idea gives me a turn . . . I'm a terrible coward about these things.

And certainly Trudi has turned pale, and is sitting up, and inclining her head forward. Stephen Halliday catches her hand and begins to chafe it, but she draws it away.

TRUDI

No, I'm all right, really.

STEPHEN

Damn, I'm a bloody idiot.

GENTLY

You musn't feel too strongly about Clooney, Miss Trudi.

TRUDI

(Darts him a look, says nothing.)

GENTLY

He seems to have affected people so differently, you'd think they had special points of view. Unless the difference was in him, and he deliberately gave different impressions.

TRUDI

I don't know how he affected the others.

GENTLY

Surely you know how Frieda disliked him.

TRUDI

Oh yes. But she's . . . different.

GENTLY

In what way?

TRUDI

Well . . . I don't know! Frieda isn't a happy person, she takes offence easily. She's all wrapped up in the business. That's her whole interest in life.

GENTLY

She would do a lot for the business.

TRUDI

Yes, it comes first with her.

STEPHEN

You'd have to marry it if you married her. It'd be a life sentence.

TRUDI

(A sidelong glance at Stephen.)

It's as I say, she isn't happy. I don't know what would make her happy. Perhaps nothing would. She's like that. Perhaps it's power she really wants, though I'm sure it wouldn't make her happy either.

GENTLY

She may be lonely.

TRUDI

Then it's her fault.

GENTLY

I suppose your sister was never engaged.

TRUDI

Oh, there's no great tragedy of that sort. Being jilted wouldn't squash Frieda.

GENTLY

Has she been jilted?

TRUDI

That's hardly possible, you must fall in love before you're jilted. I know it's cattish, talking like this, but I don't think Frieda could fall in love.

GENTLY

She loves the business.

TRUDI

Yes, exactly.

STEPHEN

Trudi was right about her wanting power. Her sort of love would be megalomania, she'd want a man she could put in a cage.

GENTLY

But then, if she lost him—

STEPHEN

She'd be dangerous. She wouldn't shed any tears.

GENTLY

You seem to have studied her case, Mr Halliday.

STEPHEN

Well, yes, psychology is part of my job.

GENTLY

Then perhaps you can tell me – a trained observer – what offence Clooney gave to Miss Breske.

STEPHEN

He didn't jilt her, I can tell you that.

GENTLY

But, you would say, he was some threat to her power?

Stephen Halliday stares silently a moment. Trudi sits hugging her brown knees. Trudi has not quite regained her colour, she may be encouraging its return by keeping her head low. The position, however, exhibits her fine shoulders, and the tanned grace of her back, and the regular spacing of strong vertebrae receding handsomely to the dress-line. You cannot discompose Trudi into anything short of beauty.

STEPHEN

It's a theory, of course. But I don't see how it's possible. If you mean Clooney was making up to Mrs Breske, I can only say that no one noticed it.

GENTLY

No one?

STEPHEN

Well, generally speaking.

TRUDI

I say the idea is ridiculous. I would have noticed—

GENTLY

Yes?

TRUDI

But I didn't. No, there's nothing in it at all.

GENTLY

Yet the news of his death upset your mother.

TRUDI

Of course, she's hysterical, she enjoys a scene. She'd storm and howl over a flat soufflé, let alone a guest being killed. That's her way.

GENTLY

So Frieda told me. Yet your mother is a shrewd woman.

TRUDI

Oh yes.

GENTLY