Read Online In Certain Circles by Elizabeth Harrower - Free Book Online

continued:
    Then Zoe came home and Mrs Howard went in to another room and came back with an eggbeater for me. She is kind, but has strict ideas about what ought to be.
    It was a fact, and Anna admitted it to herself, that she would not have liked Russell ever to hear a word of complaint fall from her. But then she had not, strictly speaking, complained to Mrs Howard. She had simply answered questions truthfully. There was no way of making that truth jolly. And then, as for Russell, he knew all that mattered by looking at you and talking about other things.
    She wrote:
    One thing I’ll remember about the Howards forever—walking into the house one summer evening with Russell and Stephen. Out in the laundry, we found Russell’s mother and father home from work, each with a whisky glass in one hand and a piece of the family washing in the other. Mrs Perkins was ill, so they set to, to sort the washing out and get it into the machine.
    They were talking and laughing about something at work, not concentrating on the washing a bit. In a little while, it was all hung out. More like a festival than hard labour. I had no idea that dull jobs could be done like that. I loved them for it.
    She had thought their good nature almost supernatural. In memory, the laundry lights shone down on the Howards’ heads like light from another world.
    Zoe came in on her way home last night. She thought the room was small, but convenient. Next year, when she graduates, she is going to Paris. I told her I had read in a paper at work that she has a brilliant future. Zoe laughed. ‘How would they know?’ she said. She has told me before about two different opportunities. One is with a man who takes still photographs, a Frenchman; the other is with a film man whose headquarters are in Paris. They have seen her work, or heard of her somehow. She will be an assistant. One of them is famous. What I still can’t understand is how they all knew about each other in the first place. Paris is so far away, and so many people must want these jobs. Zoe said they know about each other through friends. ‘Everyone seems to be your family’s friend.’
    When I said this once before, years ago, to Zoe, she looked taken aback. ‘But it’s the same for you,’ she said. ‘We all know each other. The world really is quite a small place.’
    â€˜Oh, no. Most of us don’t know anyone.’
    Anna could still remember the way they batted startled looks to and fro.
    Stephen says, ‘These women, Zoe and her mother, they have a brutal confidence. Steer clear of them. They’d trample you to death. You’re not as tough as they are. Don’t think they’re like Russell because they’re related to him.’
    Anna gloomed at the paper, recalling how she had reproached him. She had felt abused by these harsh words about her friends. After uttering cries of outrage, she argued with Stephen closely, following him about like a duellist in some Hollywood film of cardboard palaces.
    â€˜Zo’s mother is older, and she is confident because of knowing more about biology than other people. She gives us lessons in a way, but I like it. People of my age bore me. They don’t know anything. She’s used to moulding students. I’m not very malleable. But all Zo is is happy.’
    â€˜Is she?’ he asked, with a sudden, moody interest. ‘Why should she be happy?’
    Speechless, Anna turned his judgments over in her mind. ‘Why?’ she repeated, limp with astonishment. ‘I like to see someone happy. The Howards are the first happy people I’ve ever known. They’re wonderful.’ How could she explain clearly enough to him? Why could he not feel it, too?
    â€˜You’re a generous girl,’ her brother said.
    â€˜No,’ she said, exasperated. ‘They’re generous. They’ve been good to me.’
    Stephen gave an angry, bitter exclamation.