Read Online A Friend from England by Anita Brookner - Free Book Online Page A

the tomato red casseroles, the electric toasters and kettles, and even the terracotta vases and tubs for their terrace. Vans must have been streaming out of Harrods in convoy. There was something enjoyable about this excess, although I had the feeling that it proceeded more from Dorrie’s longing for her child than from the child herself. Heather made a brief appearance on this occasion, with her usual absent-minded expression; none of this seemed to touch her very closely, or perhaps she merely took it all for granted, having had a protected upbringing and a long acquaintance with the world’s material goods. The acquisitions were taken far more seriously by Michael, who endeared himself to Dorrie by his grave examination of her purchases. It occurred to me that this wedding must be costing a great deal, but nobody seemed to mind. A fever of spending, a religious ecstasy, had taken hold of Dorrie, and she was not to be diverted. When Heather put in her brief appearance, with the crowd-pleasing Michael in train,all Oscar could say was, ‘Go and tell your mother to sit down, will you?’ And later, after she had reappeared, in her usual noiseless, undramatic way, his only words were, ‘Where’s your mother?’
    They were to honeymoon in Venice, at the Gritti Palace Hotel. This was the Colonel’s contribution, and I felt that he had the more economical part of the alliance. The offers of villas in Portugal or Spain had proved to be illusory, or at least not conclusive, and not to be concluded without a great deal more discussion and display of expertise. I got the feeling that the Colonel had been impressed by the Livingstones’ serious attitude to expenditure, and had found himself forced to live up to them. The odd unsaleable villa that he might have had up his sleeve had been returned to its file, and he had risen to the heights demanded of him, even to the extent of arranging a holiday without a discount, without a percentage for himself, or any of those complicated returns that people in the travel business know about. I can’t say why I thought of him as mean. He wasn’t; and he appeared to be well off. It was just that his money didn’t seem to me to be as straightforward as the Livingstones’, and wherever it came from or wherever it went to seemed to be hedged about with restrictions. I began to see that Michael’s childhood might have been spent in more wearisome circumstances than Heather’s, that he might have been aware of his father’s affairs, the speculations, the occasional gigantic windfall, the years of affluence, and the periods of bluff. I began to feel sorry for him.
    But the wedding was truly charming. I didn’t go to the register office – for Heather had, unexpectedly, stood out against a religious ceremony – but merely turned up at the Ritz with my shoes in a paper bag, exactly like a child going to a party. Outside, the rain was streaming down, and for once I didn’t mind it, so great was the emanation of festivity from the hotelitself. Inside, the streaming windows merely enhanced the beauty of the white flowers, and through the veil of water I could see the green of the park, now in full leaf. Heather and Michael were wearing deliberately similar white suits, in which they looked young and solemn. Dorrie and her sisters were the ones to do the wedding full honours: silk dresses, large hats, frail sandals. The Colonel and Oscar were in morning dress, the Colonel looking like a bantam as he paraded jauntily up and down the receiving line, his hands clasped beneath the tails of his coat. Oscar greeted me with a smile that was almost weary. He pressed my hand, and said, ‘Our little Rachel. Thank you for coming, dear.’ I had to turn away, for sudden tears had come into my eyes. Dorrie was so happy that I doubt if she knew who was there. I resolved not to bother her, but to write her a long letter the following day. She would like that.
    The idea of a tea-dance was a great success