Read Online The Great Pursuit by Tom Sharpe - Free Book Online Page A

liquor him up and...'
    'Have you ever considered,' asked Frensic, 'going into the kidnapping business?'
    In the event there was no need to liquor Piper up. He arrived in a state of euphoria and

installed himself in Sonia's office where he sat gazing at her meaningfully while she telephoned

the literary editors of several daily papers to arrange pre-publication interviews with the

author of the world's most expensively purchased novel, Pause O Men for the Virgin. In the next

office Frensic coped with the ordinary business of the day. He phoned Geoffrey Corkadale and made

an appointment for Piper in the afternoon, he listened abstractedly to the whining of two authors

who were having difficulties with their plots, did his best to assure them that it would all come

right in the end and tried to ignore the intimations of his own instincts which were telling him

that with the signing up of Piper the firm of Frensic & Futtle had bitten off more than they

could chew. Finally when Piper went downstairs to the washroom Frensic managed to have a word

with Sonia.
    'What gives?' he asked, a lapse into transatlantic brevity that indicated his disturbed state

of mind.
    'The Guardian have agreed to interview him tomorrow and the Telegraph say they'll let me '
    'With Piper. Whence the fixed smile and the goggle eyes?'
    Sonia smiled. 'Has it ever occurred to you that he might find me attractive?'
    'No,' said Frensic. 'No it hasn't.'
    Sonia's smile faded. 'Get lost,' she said.
    Frensic got lost and considered this new and quite incomprehensible development. It was one of

the fixed stars in his firmament of opinions that no one in his right mind could find Sonia

Futtle attractive apart from Hutchmeyer and Hutchmeyer had evidently perverse tastes both in

books and in women. That Piper should be in love with her, and at such short notice, intruded a

new dimension into the situation which in his opinion was sufficiently crowded already. Frensic

sat down behind his desk and wondered what advantages could be gained from Piper's

infatuation.
    'At least it gets me off the hook,' he muttered finally and went next door again. But Piper

was back in his chair gazing with adoring eyes at Sonia. Frensic retreated and phoned her.
    'From now on, he's your pigeon,' he told her. 'You dine, wine him and anything else that

pleases you. The man's besotted.'
    'Jealousy will get you nowhere,' said Sonia smiling at Piper.
    'Right,' said Frensic, 'I want no part of this corruption of the innocent.'
    'Squeamish?' said Sonia.
    'Extremely,' said Frensic and put down the phone. 'Who was that?' asked Piper.
    'Oh just an editor at Heinemann. He's got a crush on me.'
    'Hm,' said Piper disgruntledly.
    And so while Frensic lunched at his club, a thing he did only when his ego, vanity or virility

(such as it was) had taken a bashing in the real world, Sonia swept the besotted Piper off to

Wheeler's and fed him on dry Martinis, Rhine wine, salmon cutlets and her own brand of expansive

charm. By the time they emerged into the street he had told her in so many words that he

considered her the first woman in his life to have possessed both the physical and mental

attractions which made for a real relationship and one who moreover understood the true nature of

the creative literary act. Sonia Futtle was not used to such ardent confessions. The few advances

she had had in the past had been expressed less fluently and had largely consisted of enquiries

as to whether she would or wouldn't and Piper's technique, borrowed almost entirely from Hans

Castorp in The Magic Mountain with a bit of Lawrence thrown in for good measure, came as a

pleasant surprise. There was an old-fashioned quality about him, she decided, which made a nice

change. Besides, Piper, for all his literary ambitions, was personable and not without an angular

charm and Sonia could accommodate any amount of angular charm. It was a flushed and flattered

Sonia