Read Online The Sleeping Partner by Winston Graham - Free Book Online Page B

but she wasn’t there. Or even Lynn …
    At first I was sorry I’d come, as he seemed too explosive and temperamental to have much attention for outside things but after a while the producer went off to argue with somebody at the back of the stage. We talked for a minute or two and then I told Simon about Lynn.
    He didn’t give much, but sat sideways with his elbows on the back of the seat in front, rubbing his chin on his thumb.
    â€˜I’m sorry, Michael. Very sorry indeed.’
    â€˜Did you know about it?’
    â€˜Not altogether. But I suspected something. I think you’ve been wise in not following her.’
    â€˜Why particularly?’
    â€˜Well, in my opinion she’s behaving like an immoderate little fool. If there is a hope of patching this up – and I don’t in the least propose to guess what your feelings are for each other now – if there is a hope it lies in leaving her on her own to work this over for herself and find her own way out of it.’
    I was a bit surprised at the strong way he’d put it. ‘Have you seen her?’
    â€˜No.’ After a second he added, lisping: ‘Of course I should be the last person to discourage you from meeting her half-way. But to go after her now, to meet her on her own terms, so to speak, giving her the impression that she’s more sinned against than sinning, would put an end to any hope there ever was of your coming satisfactorily together again. I know Lynn.’
    â€˜Perhaps she is more sinned against than sinning.’
    â€˜Oh, nonsense.’ He pulled at his big knitted tie until it came still looser. ‘What woman hasn’t been neglected sometime in her life because the man is buried in his work? You’ve slept at home most nights, haven’t you? And has it escaped everyone’s notice that you’ve been working for her? Where did she get that handsome piece of cat she usually wears on her back – or her car, or the money to decorate her new home according to her most extravagant fancy? And isn’t she a partner in the firm? Didn’t you tell me that?’
    â€˜She’s got a small stake, yes.’
    He didn’t speak for a while but frowned penetratingly at the stage. ‘The difficulty with a doll’s size theatre like this is one has to be so careful not to dwarf the actors and the audience. One has to suggest magnificence in miniscule. Tell me, Michael, what your own feeling about Lynn is at this moment.’
    I said: ‘I think Lynn’s a person with a very keen artistic and creative side to her. If you starve that, she starves. She’d probably have been much happier with a different sort of man.’
    â€˜Such as?’
    I looked at him. ‘ Well, such as yourself, for instance.’
    He stood up suddenly and shouted: ‘No, no, take it off! Take it off!’ Some men moved across the stage and he slumped back in his seat. ‘The idea did cross my mind when I first met her. But it wouldn’t have worked. Any other suggestions?’
    â€˜Well, Ray French perhaps.’
    â€˜An artist, I agree, and a good one. But very much a man on the make. Anyway, she couldn’t have him, he’s engaged.’
    â€˜I hadn’t heard.’
    â€˜It was in The Times recently. Someone called du Caine.’
    â€˜Oh, yes, we met her with him at Glyndebourne. Anyway, I’m not saying you or him, but someone in that general group.’
    He said: ‘Hearing you talk, Michael, it seems to me that Lynn has given you a very serious sense of inferiority about yourself and everything you do. You always liked music when I first knew you. Now you start apologising because you don’t understand Hindemith … What is this you’re working on at present, this scintillation something or other? Is it on the secret list?’
    I pushed down the seat beside me and rested a hand on it. ‘You know uranium – deposits of