The Takeover by Muriel Spark Read Free Book Online

BUSINESS-MAN, ABOUT forty-three, I should imagine rather conceited,’ said Maggie, ‘with a son who looks like a gigolo, a daughter, a kind of Girl Guide, I couldn’t stand the girl; then there was a downtrodden English governess and the girl’s boy-friend, awful little fellow from under some stone. The only good thing about them was their house, which isn’t theirs, it’s mine.’
    ‘Oh, but I know Pietro and Michael likes him,’ her daughter-in-law said.
    ‘I admit the son was the best of the lot,’ Maggie said, ‘but it isn’t saying much. Very bourgeois; of course they were terrified of lifting a finger to help me to get Hubert out.’
    ‘I’ll do everything I can to help you,’ Mary said eagerly. She was terribly anxious to make a success of her marriage, as she would put it; her father was a success and her mother was a well-known success in advertising although she didn’t by any means need the job; moreover, Mary’s elder sister was busy making a success of her marriage. Mary had been successfully brought up, neither too much nor too little indulged. And so, still half under the general anaesthetic of her past years, Mary was not disposed to regard Maggie as critically as she would have done had Maggie not been her mother-in-law; it was part of making a success of her marriage. ‘So long as I’m here on the spot, Maggie,’ Mary said, ‘I’ll do my best.’
    ‘I know I was foolish to let things get this way,’ Maggie said. ‘I realize that. It was just that when I was married to Ralph Radcliffe I got just so bored, I just took on a number of artists and intellectuals in a number of cities, and I just.…Well, Hubert of course was really sort of someone, I really helped him to be what he was, but he’s not all that a somebody. He’s better known in Paris, of course, or rather was a few years back after Ce Soir Mon Frère, that play, you know—’
    ‘Oh yes! Did Hubert produce it?’ Mary said.
    ‘No, Hubert wrote it. Well, I took—’
    ‘Was it a success?’ Mary said.
    ‘Well, in Paris it was. So I took Hubert on more and more. He was doing this play. And after a couple of years he was doing another. I helped him a lot with funds and so on, the rent. Sometimes he’d give me a bit of advice about pictures, when we went to the galleries, New York and Paris. Then, well, there was advice and counsel about so much furniture and rugs. He has taste and knowledge, but of course that’s not everything. Then you know he kind of took over my life; even when I was away I felt dependent, I felt trapped, and I couldn’t rely on Michael’s father as a husband, not at all; no, Ralph Radcliffe couldn’t have cared less. Of course Hubert’s friendship with me was only platonic.’
    ‘So what were you getting out of it?’ Mary said.
    ‘Exactly. In the end, that’s what I asked. But who would believe it if there was a scandal? And you know these houses at Nemi, it was Hubert’s idea to invest this way; he found two houses for me, and of course he wanted one for himself on that piece of land. I don’t regret the houses, they’re all good properties and appreciating in value, only I want out, out, out, where Hubert is concerned. When I remarried I told Berto about Hubert still occupying one of my houses, and all the best furniture in it. Berto said, “You’re crazy, Maggie, crazy. He’s a hanger-on. Just get him out. Tell him to go.” But it’s difficult, you know.’
    ‘Hubert has the nerve!’ said Mary. ‘The nerve of him! I heard that he had a house full of queers last summer.’
    ‘Yes, but I stopped the money. When I married Berto he said, “Stop sending money. Stop the money order at the bank.” I didn’t really know what to do. It’s really hypnotic when you get in someone’s clutches. Berto said, “Why are you hesitating? What are you afraid of? Just write and tell him you’re stopping the money.” Berto said he would write himself, if I wanted. I said, “Well, Berto, he