The Honeywood Files (21 page)

SPINLOVE TO GRIGBLAY

Dear Sir, 7.9.25.

I cannot accept the position you take in your letter, but agree you had grounds for misunderstanding. Later on I will discuss the question with Mr. Grigblay and come to some arrangement; in the meantime, I will do my best to get a decision from Lady Brash.

I have wired to Sir Leslie Brash, which will, I hope, help matters, and I am writing to him. He is still in Scotland and will, no doubt, pass you a cheque on his return. Your application for certificate has my attention.

Yours faithfully,

SPINLOVE TO TINGE
,
QUANTITY SURVEYOR

Dear Mr. Tinge, 7.9.25.

I enclose particulars of the state of the work and of certificates granted. Grigblay has asked for a further £2,000. You will see he had £3,000 only four weeks ago.

Will you let me have an estimate of value of work done.

Yours truly,

(TELEGRAM) SPINLOVE TO BRASH

7.9.25.

Brash, Achoe, Glen Taggie, Inverness. Work held up urgent writing Spinlove.

It is difficult to see what purpose Spinlove had in sending such a telegram except to put Brash off his aim for the day.

SPINLOVE TO LADY BRASH

Dear Lady Brash, 8.9.25.

I came down expressly to see you on Saturday, as arranged, and was disappointed to find you out for the day. I have this morning received your letter.

I am very sorry to know you are so worried, but the alterations you want involve all sorts of difficult questions which cannot be settled except at an interview, and your letter makes allusions to matters of which I know nothing. If you will make an appointment, I will gladly come down and settle things with you. Perhaps you could telephone. I rang up and left a message for you this morning, but have heard nothing.

It will not do to delay, as the builder has already had to send away some of the men and the works will be in part stopped if something is not decided at once.

I have received a rather stiff letter from Mr. Grigblay pointing this out and, of course, it all means extra expense.

I could come down to-morrow afternoon if you will telephone before 11, or early on Thursday. I shall not be in town on Wednesday, and have an appointment in London on Thursday afternoon.

With kind regards,

Yours sincerely,

P.S.—As I have already mentioned, you need have no anxiety about the chimney flues. I will see they are all right.

It is difficult to imagine a much more tactless letter. Spinlove asks the poor soul not to worry and then tells her of various causes for worry of which she is happily unaware.

SPINLOVE TO BRASH (INVERNESS)

Dear Sir Leslie Brash, 8.9.25.

I wired to you last night—“Work held up urgent writing” as I am in a quandary, and Grigblay has been obliged to send away some of the men and others will follow them unless I can at once give directions. As perhaps you know, Lady Brash wishes the partition between bedrooms 8 and 9 moved so as to make the dressing-room bigger, and it was taken down without my knowledge, as also partition between 5 and 6, by an error. There are numerous minor alterations and serious displacements involved in the alterations and I feel sure if these were understood you would wish the partition restored. There is also certain other work Lady Brash wants altered but I have not been told what exactly is required. I have, however, stopped part of the work including the drains or this might have to be done all over again.

I feel it is difficult for you to come to any decision from such a distance but think you would wish to know what is happening as, besides extra cost of the alterations, there may be claims for interference with the work and, of course, time allowance will have to be given. The plastering and some other work is going on as well as circumstances will allow.

Yours sincerely,

What sort of an answer Spinlove can expect to this letter it would be difficult to imagine. If he could not set out definite points for Brash to decide—and it is difficult to see how he could do so—it would have been better for him to confine himself to saying that alterations have been ordered which make it important for Brash to be on the spot as soon as possible. However, this letter will give Brash some idea of what is happening.

LADY BRASH TO SPINLOVE

Dear Mr. Spinlove, Sunday.

I really do not know why all this worry with Mr. Blogs not doing what I said and so many questions going on and on and Phyllis away and Leslie and the man about the chimneys again because now is the time and not wait till the house is finished and perhaps have to be pulled down he says. I want the wall moved but not the wrong one they have pulled down and the men all smoking and whistling instead of attending and the extra expense which I know Leslie will not pay when he always said the house was for me in case he died first and not for Mr. Grigby to stop the work and do what he likes and make the stairs not wide enough with all the trouble we had at Pilchins over again taking the window out to get it in [?
the wardrobe
] and such small ones [?
windows
] when I wanted them big and not with little squares all over, but Mrs. Spooner says they will do it and you can get in quite easily by cutting the squares with a pen-knife and perhaps be murdered so I shall never feel safe in the house when Leslie is away and you cannot have bars in case of fire she says. If I had known that it meant I never never never would have agreed with the papers all saying how ugly factory chimneys are and ought to be stopped but I knew what it would be and how am I to get others now the cook and second housemaid have given notice because a new house is damp though I told Leslie all along I could not live in a damp house and the trouble of moving in and the carpets not fitting and things getting broken!!! If Phyllis was here I could get a little sleep and not lie with it all going round and round in my head and how it will all end I really do not know.

Yours v. sincerely,

MISS PHYLLIS BRASH TO SPINLOVE

Dear Jazz, 10.9.25.

I skipped home last night. What have you been doing to my poor little Mum? She has made herself ill over this wonderful house of yours. Why cannot the poor thing have clear glass and an Aquarium—she has had one since she was an infant—and the wardrobe that belonged to her grandmother? I know the poor dear is apt to get into states and we have to take care of her, but building without tears is surely poss? Anyhow, come and be nice to her. It’s no earthly writing letters and it is very bad for her to be distressed—and what does the dam house matter anyway, you fussy old Architectooralooral Jazz?

Dad jumps in on Thursday week—eight days! Great rejoicings—my sire has slaughtered a nine pointer! Not nine pointers, thank goodness. Been staying with Snooty and her lot at St. Austell and doing the Daily Mail dry bathing girl stunt all day. No great larks, but a lovely time.

Pud

P.S.—Be sure and phone train. I will pick you up at station for yap before you see M.

“Pud” is clearly the daughter, Phyllis; not at all the sort of daughter one would expect the Brashes to produce. “Jazz” is perhaps derived from Jas. or the initials J. S.

(TELEGRAM) BRASH TO SPINLOVE

10.9.25.

spinlove, architect, ranger house, mayfair, london, w.
1
. Your telegraphic and written communications received stop desist from all alterations stop returning next Sunday prox ends brash.

Brash seems to be a good customer of the Post Office.

BRASH TO SPINLOVE

Dear Mr. Spinlove, 13.9.25.

I arrived home to-day and am greatly gratified with the considerable advance in progress during the interim of my absence. I shall be gratified if you will use your best endeavours to come down here as early as possible to-morrow as the requisite haste brooks no delay. Kindly telephone approximate hour of your probable arrival.

I was so fortunate as to secure a fine trophy, though not a “Royal,” to my rifle while in the Northern Highlands of Scotland. This I intend shall be affixed over the fireplace in the interior hall and will augment the embellishments of the apartment, which unless my apprehensions mislead me, I anticipate may be a little plain in decorative accessories.

Yours sincerely,

Nothing much wrong here apparently—nor even with the tautology! We do not know what happened at Spinlove’s interview with Lady Brash but we may guess that the buoyant vitality of Pud has made all sweet and secure.

SPINLOVE TO BRASH

Dear Sir Leslie Brash, 15.9.25.

I write to confirm instructions you gave me yesterday in conversation, as follows:

Breeze partition between bedrooms 8 and 9 to be restored but to have door opening between the rooms.

Partition to bedrooms 5 and 6 to be refixed so as to make dressing-room 1’ 9” wider and doorway to be closed up.

Leaded glazing to be fixed as already supplied.

Hot and cold service and waste connection for Aquarium to be fixed in front hall window.

I yesterday gave directions to this effect and the work is going ahead. I am grateful to you for giving way on the matter of the glazing, and I am sure that after the house is finished you will have no cause to regret your decision. You would soon gather from the comments of your friends that sheet glass was a great shortcoming in such a house and in time you would be likely to have it taken out and lead glazing fixed.

I enclose receipt for cheque which you handed me on Monday and for which many thanks. I note you are sending cheque to Grigblay. With kind regards to Lady Brash and yourself,

Believe me,

Yours sincerely,

In these matters one can never tell how the cat will jump but here is a happy ending indeed! When motives are ingenuous and methods frank, a tough dispute often clears away distrust and establishes a higher mutual respect and a deeper sympathy and liking.

As usual, Spinlove has said more than is necessary. By repeating the adroit argument that appears to have won the day for him he is rubbing in his victory which is the last thing Brash wishes to be reminded of.

TINGE
,
QUANTITY SURVEYOR
,
TO SPINLOVE

Dear Sir, 15.9.25.

Yours faithfully,

As more than half the work is done the maximum retention of 10 percent of contract, has accumulated.

BRASH TO SPINLOVE

Dear Mr. Spinlove, 18.9.25.

An influential acquaintance is financially interested in a new novelty super-paint which will shortly, he informs me, replace all other surface coverings now on the market. It is called Riddoppo and is a
super
-paint giving a most dainty and fascinating interior surface to the inside of houses, as it is free from any odoriferous effects, cannot be scratched by the fingernail and is capable of receiving a high polish. It is elastic so that cracks do not permeate through it and it is also
non-inflammable and operates as a fire-proofing coat to both joinery and walls
. I should not be doing justice to the merits of Riddoppo if I did not add that it is
acid proof
, is compounded of entirely new secret elements and that a jet of boiling water or super-heated steam may be directed to impinge upon it for some minutes without deleterious effects occurring. The colours obtainable are very exquisite and varied and we have provisionally selected tints which we desire embodied in the decorative embellishments of the apartments of Honeywood Grange—as we anticipate naming the mansion; these will be known as the Pink Room, the Yellow Room, the Blue Room and so forth and the tints available will make it possible for each door to be identified by its independent colour.

Our friend will allow me a special extra discount of ten percent and we shall have his advice in the choice of tints and decorative embellishments as he promises that our house shall represent the best modern effects possible.

With kind regards,

Yours sincerely,

Silly old man!

SPINLOVE TO BRASH

Dear Sir Leslie Brash, 19.9.25.

I know nothing of Riddoppo, I am afraid, except that it is advertised in the Tube lift I daily use as a “new novelty super paint,” but this description, I assure you, is no recommendation but rather the opposite. Grigblay is responsible for the painting, and the paint specified is well known and the best results can be obtained from it. I can hardly think that Riddoppo is of any practical value as a fire-proofing, nor that it will hide cracks opening under it. The ability to resist jets of acid and super-heated steam will not count for much at Honeywood, and you will not want it “polished”; and as linseed oil and zinc white have been proved by long years of use to give perfect results it is surely not an advantage, but a disadvantage, that Riddoppo does not contain them.

I trust that you will not allow your friend to settle the colours of the rooms. This is a matter which Lady Brash and yourself should alone decide; it should depend entirely on your individual taste and the completion of the design of the house as a whole. I do not think your friend can have had any experience in this matter, or he would not make such proposals as you describe; nor would he make any proposals at all before he had seen the house in a state approaching completion.