House of All Nations by Christina Stead Read Free Book Online Page B

Tell him he’s got the sack—the invisible sack, since he’s not employed. But you tell him, Alphendéry. Go on.’
    Alphendéry’s face looked blank. He had overplayed his hand. He was quite crushed by the thought of having to go back to Raccamond to tell him his embassy had failed.
    Going out, William said, ‘With Jules, you should never give too many reasons. I know him of old.’
    â€˜You’re right,’ said Michel humbly, ‘that’s true of all wilful men.’
    William went down and found Raccamond talking earnestly to one of the rich charitable ladies of the sixteenth arrondissement.
    â€˜Isn’t she a friend of Mme. Citroën?’ said William, very low.
    â€˜I’ve heard that. But lots of people are.’
    â€˜Doesn’t matter: we’d be mad to kick out that fellow. What do we care about his morals? I’m going to let it ride, for a few days at any rate. Tell Jules I couldn’t find him. Let him tell him himself. I know Jules. He won’t. We’ve got a man to buy tickets for the bouts for clients: I don’t see why we can’t have a man who knows the prices at the House of All Nations!’
    â€˜If we didn’t have any toilets, our clients would leave us, too,’ said Alphendéry.
    * * *
    Scene Three: Blind, Instinctive Love
    H enrietta Achitophelous, flushed and at the brightest hour of her dazzling young beauty, threw herself back rebelliously into one of Bertillon’s great green armchairs. In this posture she was completely hidden from view, unless one stood in front of her. Achitophelous, handsome in the beak-nose style, yellow, with deep sunk eyes and thick eyebrows, completely bald, fifty, sat in a straight armchair, leaning forward on his elbows, his plump yellow hands clasped. The nails were finely pared and shone. He seemed to chuckle sardonically.
    â€˜And then, what does she do?’ he inquired of Jules Bertillon, who smiled at the young girl. ‘What does she do? She goes round spreading the most frightful scandal about the schoolmistresses—a little boy is not half so dirty.’
    Henrietta exploded. ‘I couldn’t stand their rotten old school and I wanted them to expel me. There was no other way. Of course, I could have said I was pregnant, but they would have made a doctor come and find out.’
    Jules’s carillon of laughter filled the upper air. ‘Oh, Henrietta!’
    â€˜I come from Constantinople, where I had a big business deal on, and I find what—she had flown, run away. Where to? To Paris. And before she went, she told the headmistress she was a Bolshevik and that she was going straight to Moscow. Naturally, I am almost hysterical. I cable everywhere … And all the time she is in Paris, laughing at me … Next, she threatens to sue me!’ He threw up his hands limply and elegantly in a well-worn gesture and shrugged his shoulders.
    â€˜What for?’ asked Jules, laughing.
    â€˜What for? For trying to get the police to export her—throw her out, expel her, you know what I mean.’
    â€˜I was keeping myself,’ cried Henrietta rudely, ‘and you had no rights over me.’
    â€˜Keeping yourself! H’m. How; that’s what I should like to know. We’d all like to know … ’ He turned to Jules Bertillon. ‘Her poor mother was nearly frantic.’
    Henrietta mimicked him cruelly, ‘My poor mother was nearly frantic! The ladies came in to tea. “And where is dear Henrietta now, darling? In Paris, how charming. And is she at school there? No? How odd! What can she be doing in Paris? She has gone into the theater! Oh, my poor darling: how terrible you must feel. But do you hear from her? And—where does she live, dear? Are you—are you perfectly sure—but how worried you must be!” Yes, poor mother. Poor mannequin.’
    Achitophelous leapt to his feet. ‘There! You see: is that a way