Read Online We That Are Left by Clare Clark - Free Book Online Page A

Bernhard Riemann was German.
    â€˜Eleanor says you’re a Mathematics prodigy,’ Phyllis said. ‘That you’ll win a scholarship to Oxford.’
    â€˜Maybe. I’d like to.’
    She stared at her knees. ‘You’re lucky. Eleanor wouldn’t let me go. She says that the really clever girls know not to look too clever. Men don’t marry clever girls apparently.’
    Oscar looked surprised. ‘I didn’t know that.’
    â€˜Uncle Henry tried to change her mind. He said that . . . well, I suppose it doesn’t matter now.’
    They were both silent. Phyllis tucked her fingers inside the cuffs of her jersey and hugged herself to keep warm. Her pointed face was milky pale and there were purple shadows under her eyes. She looked very tired and sad. Oscar tried to think of something kind to say to her.
    â€˜Did you know it’s because of your Uncle Henry that they don’t let scientists fight any more?’ he said at last. ‘Not the really good ones, at any rate.’
    â€˜Really?’
    â€˜My physics master gave me a book about him. Well, more of a journal really. There was an article in it about your uncle.’
    â€˜About it being because of him that scientists aren’t allowed to fight?’
    â€˜No, Mr Hall told me that. The article was about Melville’s Law.’
    Phyllis smiled faintly. ‘Eleanor always says Melville’s Law is that the less a Melville has to do, the more time he will spend in his study pretending to do it.’
    â€˜Actually that’s not Melville’s Law.’
    â€˜I know. It’s a joke.’
    â€˜Oh,’ Oscar said. He stared at the floor. ‘Sorry.’
    â€˜The awful thing is I don’t actually know what Melville’s Law is. The real one, I mean.’
    Oscar hesitated. ‘Do you want me to tell you?’
    â€˜Please.’
    â€˜Melville’s Law proved a systematic mathematical relationship between the wavelengths of the X-rays produced by chemical elements and their atomic numbers.’
    â€˜I don’t even know what that means.’
    â€˜It means that until your uncle came along, people thought that atomic numbers were semi-arbitrary. I mean, they knew they were based approximately on atomic mass but they didn’t think they were fixed or anything. Melville’s experiments proved that an element’s atomic number correlates directly with the X-ray spectra of its atoms.’
    â€˜Is that important?’
    â€˜Of course it’s important. Before him nobody knew it was true.’
    â€˜But does it matter? I mean, does it make a difference, knowing?’
    Oscar frowned. ‘If you mean what will it change, I’m notexactly sure. There’s a lot I don’t understand, and we don’t exactly do it in school. But knowing always makes a difference, doesn’t it? I mean, surely it’s the point. Of everything.’
    She smiled. Her face was sharp, all points and angles, but her eyes were soft. She did not look as though she was laughing at him on the inside.
    â€˜What?’ he said.
    â€˜Nothing. It’s nice to hear you talking, I suppose. You don’t talk much.’
    â€˜I don’t usually have anything important to say.’
    â€˜That doesn’t seem to stop most people.’
    â€˜My mother says it is because I got muddled with German and English when I was small so I decided it was better not to speak at all.’ It was an old joke, one he had forgotten he remembered. Then he saw the way Phyllis looked at him and something inside him shrivelled. ‘I don’t speak it any more,’ he blurted. ‘I was never any good anyway.’
    Phyllis did not answer. The silence made Oscar’s throat ache. ‘My father used to get so angry with me,’ he gabbled. ‘He said that German was the language of science and high culture. Even though he hated Germany and never went back. He said