The Hothouse by the East River by Muriel Spark Read Free Book Online Page A

tenderly
in her handbag.
    Elsa
goes to her chair by the east window. ‘It’s stopped snowing.’ she says.
    ‘Elsa,’
Paul says. ‘Elsa — I’m your husband and I’m asking you. What’s written on those
shoes?’
    ‘Don’t
panic,’ says Garven.
    ‘Little
things, prematurely born,’ says the Princess.
    ‘What
do you know?’ Katerina says, ‘what do you know — The Pope is going to abolish
the colour red for Cardinals.’
    Her
father says, ‘Katerina, there are messages in code from Kiel on these shoes.
Will you be serious for once? Will you think of me for one minute. What kind of
daughter are you?’
    ‘I
found out something about Kiel for you,’ she says. ‘My God, I did! I dated him
twice. He’s got clap. I know, because he’s given it to me. Now I need treatment
quick and I need some money for it. Don’t panic.’
    ‘Mr
Garven,’ says the Princess. ‘Take Miss Hazlett immediately to the hospital.
She must not drink from cups that anyone else is going to use.’
    ‘It
isn’t my field,’ Garven says, ‘but I’d be happy to recommend —’
    ‘I
don’t believe her,’ says Paul. ‘I don’t believe a word she says.’
    ‘Elsa!’
says Garven. ‘What’s going on here?’
    ‘Get a
doctor for Katerina if she needs one,’ says Elsa, waving her arms in large
dismissal.
    Garven
gives another sort of cry, not a scream, but a deep and chesty sound as if he
were groaning from a thousand miles away. He stands up and walks backwards.
‘There’s something wrong with your shadow,’ he says. ‘It’s falling in the wrong
direction.’ She moves her arm again, waving merrily. He stops walking backwards
and looks at the dancing shadow. ‘Things had to come to a head as I told you,
Elsa. This is a major event in your case-history. You’ve externalised.’
    ‘Nonsense,’
says the Princess as she wraps herself up again. ‘There’s nothing new about
Elsa’s symptom. A discerning healer would have noticed long before this. She’s
had it for years.’
    Katerina
says, ‘It even shows in photographs.’
    ‘Quiet,
quiet,’ breathes Paul to his daughter. ‘Don’t bandy these factors about. Have
you no respect for your family? You never told me before that you even noticed
your mother’s disability. Now you come here and open your mouth in front of
everyone. Can’t you keep a thing to yourself?’
    ‘Yes,’
she says. ‘I didn’t breathe a word about Ma’s shadow to Kiel.’
    ‘You saw
Kiel? — You did see Kiel?’ he says.
    ‘He
calls himself Mueller,’ says Katerina.
    ‘Shadows,’
says Garven, looking round the room. ‘Hysteria. Worms. You’ve externalised,
Elsa.’
    ‘Externalised
what?’ she says.
    ‘Your
problem.’ Her Guidance Director looks at her with the anticipation of a fortune
to be cultivated and reaped. ‘A rare if not unique occurrence — a case of
externalisation. Probably total.’
    ‘She
could go in a circus,’ Katerina says.
    ‘I have
to get a new maid,’ Elsa says. ‘How do I start?’

 
     
     
    IV
     
    ‘It gives me the creeps,’
says Paul, ‘to have that psychoanalyst waiting on me at table and brushing my
suit in the morning. I don’t know how you can stand it.’
    ‘Delia
was so marvellous,’ Elsa says. ‘A pity she broke down like that.’
    ‘Well,
get another girl. Get another girl. This is unwholesome.’
    ‘I
can’t find a girl. Garven is very willing. He’ll do anything for us so long as
he gets material for his book about my case.’
    ‘Then
we’ll all be exposed in public. He’ll make a fortune and we’ll be ruined.
Haven’t you any foresight?’
    Elsa
laughs. ‘He hasn’t got his material yet. He’s looking for the cause, and all
I’m giving him are effects. It’s lovely.’ She goes over to the window and looks
out, smiling.
    There
is the sound of a key in the door, distinctly, along the passage.
    ‘There
he is,’ Paul says, ‘Here he comes. You can’t open your mouth in front of him.’
    ‘One
can always speak