Read Online Nothing So Strange by James Hilton - Free Book Online Page B

Muriel; Framm was opposite him between my mother and Baroness
Regensburg, who threw a little German at him occasionally. But there was no
need; he spoke good English, though with an accent; while as for his
appearance, it was nowhere near either my mother’s foolery or mine; and that,
perhaps, introduces him best, for he was the kind of man it would have been
hard to imagine in advance. I had certainly never met anyone who so obviously
looked important; you would have stared at him anywhere, if only on account
of his large frame and massive, wide-browed head. In age he might have been
anything between forty and sixty; the bushy hair was iron-gray, the eyes were
blue and keen, the lips sensitive and also sensual. He gave an impression of
physical and mental vigor that dominated without effort, and therefore
without offense; and his voice had a matching quality that lured the listener
from whomever else he was listening to, yet it wasn’t loud—there were
times when you wondered how you had managed to hear it. I think I was not the
only person at that dinner party who was fascinated, but I wished there had
been something in him to catch my mother’s eye about and smile.
    Looking back on that first and only time I ever met Hugo Framm it is
tempting to overload the diagnosis; but I do recollect, during dinner,
wondering what faults a man like that would have, and deciding they must
include vanity (since he had clearly so much to be vain about), and a kind of
arrogance, since the continual experience of other people’s admiration would
give him either that or shyness, and he certainly wasn’t shy. Yet these were
deductions, not observations; and I cannot say that at any time he was either
boastful or overbearing. Whether he was talking to my mother, or to the
Baroness, or to Brad, or to the whole table, there was a constant radiation
of what, for want of any other word, must be called charm; and in the end it
was the constancy of this that seemed to me its only possible drawback. If
only one could have caught a glimpse of something beneath the charm; one knew
it was there, so there was no taint of superficiality, but one was teased,
after a time, by the withholding.
    After dinner we sat in the drawing room in changing groups. It was not the
sort of party for music, but there was a billiard room across the hall where
card tables were set up. A bridge four detached themselves from the main
party; they weren’t missed and I wasn’t aware of it when they returned. It
must have been an unsatisfactory game. My father kept moving from group to
group, the considerate host, and during one of these movements he found a
chance to whisper in my ear that Brad had decided to accept Framm’s
offer.
    “You mean he’s only just decided? I thought it was all settled weeks
ago.”
    “Well, no. Apparently he wasn’t sure till they talked just now.”
    “I didn’t see them talking much.”
    “It was after you left the table. They had quite a private chat. Framm has
to go back to Vienna tomorrow night and if Brad can make arrangements in time
they’ll go together.”
    “ Tomorrow night ?” That came as a shock.
    “Yes.”
    “Isn’t that quick work?”
    “He won’t have much to pack—Brad, I mean. Lives in furnished rooms,
doesn’t he?”
    “I don’t know—I’ve never been there.”
    “Well, your mother must have—or else he once told me.”
    “Father, do you really think it’s the best thing he can do to go with
Professor Framm?”
    “Why, don’t you like Framm?”
    “I think he’s very charming, but it does seem rather sudden if Brad only
made up his mind tonight and he leaves tomorrow. I hope it’s the right
thing.”
    “It’s a great chance—if he uses it. Of course if he doesn’t use his
chances, nothing at all will do him much good…. We shall miss him when he’s
gone—your mother will, I know…. By the way, where is she?”
    “In the billiard room, I think.