Complete Works of Ford Madox Ford, page 699
Elspeth had, rather wistfully, agreed that such a disposition of his posthumous means was thoroughly American and right in the democratic spirit of the times. Nevertheless she could not help hoping that he would leave the boy enough capital to start him in a business and the girl enough to let her accomplish any learned studies upon which she might be engaged. Notterdam had replied that that would settle itself. Should he survive for sufficiently long, at the rate of saving that he could expect, he would naturally see that the children were reasonably provided for. If, on the other hand, he died early, all his capital would be needed to support herself, that being his first duty....
The children had now taken refuge in intimate conversations, the boy asking the girl if a certain Anna Petersen in her class was really such a swell at composition - she was said to be awful swell! - and the girl answering that she was not so swell as all that... And, they went on discussing Anna Petersen’s accomplishments, looks, skill at basketball, sex attractiveness and the like, for a long time. It appeared to be a matter of admitting her to some secret society....
An oily, cautious voice remarked:
‘Capel Court... Street Closing Prices... Canadian Pulp, two points down... Imperial Glasgow Jute, no movements... The market for Lehigh Valley hops was agitated by the news....’
The boy nudged the girl and asked:
‘You still holding your Imperial Jutes... They’re a bum lot!’
‘Well, they’ve gone up two points. I’ll guess I’ll hold till Tuesday. Monday’s a holiday in England....’
Notterdam wondered whether the children actually held stocks or whether this was part of a school course.
... Elspeth suddenly sat up and forward in her chair.
... The oily and cautious voice announced a fall of
twelve points in United Kingdom Brick and Constructions. This being a half-holiday on the London Stock Exchange, official prices closed at noon. There had been subsequently some wild gambling on the Street in this stock in which so many American investors were interested....
Elspeth’s face looked grey and old, leaning forward. She closed her eyes and yet swept her fingers through her forehead hair... The nonchalant and drawling voice observed after a pause:
‘United Kingdom Brick and Construction... The general tendency of street transactions was very decidedly downward, owing to yesterday’s kindred United States Companies’ actions...’ She put her hand to her side and sank right back into her chair... It struck him that she must have abandoned American securities for English ones and he felt glad that he was in a position to make up her losses if she had made any....
That news came from far across the Atlantic and at the sight of that hand stilling a heart, for all the world as the sick girl’s at the office had done, he found himself wishing intensely that he had not repudiated the contract with Porter.
The thought indeed struck him with such poignancy that he knew he could not long remain in that chair. Induced by the highball, a wave of complacency had descended on him. There was the long room; his, and pleasant, in the late March twilight... He felt a little pharisaically that he was not like either his wife or the children. But if his silent wife had the money with which to gamble, it was due to his patient bow and spear that she was so able.... They were openly or silently hostile to him. He was the mere He of the household against whom was the hand of every man. It was permissible to consider himself as triumphing over the tendencies that they represented.
Yet, because of the urgings of a young woman and the sick fancies of a friend, he had permitted himself to repudiate a contract. The repudiation might turn out to be very awkward. He could not even feel complacency at the thought that he had come through a very canyon of financial difficulty and could spend half a day in his armchair.
He sprang out from it with such energy that the Room observed him with hostile curiosity. He said that he was going to have a good soak and then dress for dinner. He hoped dinner would not be late. He added that he had had a dreadfully tiring day at the office, Kratch having been more than unusually unreasonable. His secretary said that he was a very sick man. The trouble had been about the general policy of the House.
At that the girl asked him if he did not think that by following the lines of Mr. Kratch he might have made them all rich enough to keep a yacht. She did not approve of senseless luxury, and still less of licence. But the parents of nearly all her friends had yachts. It did not let her appear very spiritedly at school, having none. The boy said that it was all because mother had married a bum Englishman: Mr. Kratch was the representative ornament of America. Of course Notterdam would disagree with his policy!
For a moment Notterdam felt himself like a wild boar at bay. But there was no retaliation possible. He repeated therefore weakly that old Kratch certainly had seemed a pretty sick man.
Elspeth sat forward in her chair. She exclaimed: ‘Henriet... Miss Felise did not say that there had been any developments — in Bill’s illness?’ Her voice was quite expressionless.... She added: ‘I knew of course that Bill considered himself a very sick man. I ought perhaps to have warned you not to torment him... Miss Felise told me even more than Bill did. I have kept in touch with her. I thought I ought to be prepared.’
Notterdam said:
‘Torment... Bill!’ He added:
‘Look here, Elspeth... If you’re going to take up the cudgels for Bill....’
She said:
‘I’ve never concealed from you, as far as I know, that I consider Bill a far more acute business man than you.... Whatever his personal characteristics may be... I asked you if Henrietta Felise had told you of any further developments in Bill’s case.’
He answered:
‘No, I don’t know.... How should she know?’
It seemed to him extraordinary that his wife should know Henrietta Faukner Felise.... What a pompous name for such a tiny, tender thing!... He felt a singular impulse to exclaim:
‘I love Henrietta Felise to madness... I mean to make her mine....’ And he imagined Elspeth saying sardonically that it was on very short acquaintance.... As much as to say that it was an infatuation of a man going down the slope... And then he was astonished that the thought of the girl should have come over him with such intenseness. He smelt the perfume of her hair.
‘The girl,’ Elspeth said, ‘is a doctor’s daughter. She would know more than just anybody!’ She added: ‘I hope you will treat her with reasonable kindness... With special consideration. Not as you speak to some of your employees...
This seemed to Notterdam so extraordinary - and so comic - that he found nothing at all to say. He stood with his jaw hanging down. It occurred to him that Kratch must have got a great deal into the one interview with Elspeth that Henrietta Felise had described to him.
But no doubt Kratch, after having complained of his own illness, had complained of his, Notterdam’s, treatment of Messrs. Walpfortzheimer, Fergusheim and the rest. He certainly kept them at a distance. He said:
‘One has to have discipline in one’s office.’
‘Well,’ Elspeth said coolly, ‘if I hear of your treating Miss Felise with insolence you will have to hear from me... Let alone Bill!’
He exclaimed:
‘Miss Felise and Bill between them have trepanned me into the most dishonourable action of my life... Oughtn’t that to be enough for you?.. He had been about to add that it had been the only dishonourable act of his life. But after his interview with Professor Hacker about the educational books, he had telegraphed to a man called Jellichs the words ‘Speed on!’ That meant the disposal of several thousand dollars in the State Capitol. That and the remembrance of several other business uncomfortablenesses checked him in his stride. They had succeeded: they were buried. But they dampened declamation!
His irritation with Kratch grew when he was in the Assyrian bath room. It suddenly seemed to him that that too was an incursion of Kratch architecture into his home. It undoubtedly was Kratch. And it was insupportable. He had had enough of Kratch. And then some!
The irritation had begun with the re-starting of the riveters immediately after Kratch had left the Editorial Conference. That had really seemed to Notterdam like an assertion that Kratch considered himself God Almighty. The riveters - New York in her stride - could be stopped because Kratch wanted to deliver an oration. The rest of them must just put up with any racket! After that had come the repudiation of the Porter contract!
Notterdam would not allow that he had repudiated it just to please the girl. The form in which his orders to her had been given precluded that. He had first told her that she might radio Kratch to the effect that he, Notterdam, would not make any more chain contracts until Kratch was fit again. Then he had told her to write a letter as if from the House to Porter stating that they had no knowledge of any arrangement with him and returning the manuscript - both by special messenger.... The words had just come out of his mouth - as if he had been will-less.
The scene came back to him with the hard outlines that attend the visions we see in fevers... In the office he had been for the moment in the sort of nasty temper that descends on a man when he is pushed by his family - whom he loves - into a course of which he strongly disapproves... Kratch, the girl and the table instruments were all the family that he had.
Miss Felise had said:
‘Oh, I am so sorry!’ She was seated drooping before him over his friendly table array. He had felt suddenly spurred to desperation — to real desperation.
He had opened his mouth as if to gasp. There had come out instead words. Irrevocabilities!
Well... They were his family... The table, the shining instruments... Miss Felise... And Kratch, forcing him through the voice of Miss Felise! The words he had said had been:
‘Very well, then. You can radio to Kratch....’
They were already a consent to the course that he distrusted... She would have the right to hold him to them.... She had sat up, her face pale, her spine erect. With a startled look... He understood that he was trapped... Why?
It was because of the agony of Kratch who was afraid of omens... He knew it was because of that. There was, at the back of his mind, a feeling of vicarious agony, of mortal fear for Kratch... He would not have done that as a step in the affections of Henrietta Faukner Felise.... He certainly would have done anything, in the lamentable state in which he found himself, to make a step forward in her affections. But not that... Women care more for men who back their own opinions... But he was glad if it relieved her feelings....
The inevitable thought had occurred to him: Kratch must have seduced this girl. That was why she was so concerned about his state of health. Nevertheless, Kratch’s health was bad....
He exclaimed sardonically:
‘No. Let us do this thing in order... Ring Miss Cresswell to take a letter... I shall not use you for taking my letters.... You will be wanted for other things....’ He added: ‘Miss Felise!’
He had exclaimed to Miss Cresswell who looked more than usually diaphanous and frightened... It was pretty to see how Henrietta gave up her chair and stood as if comfortingly behind her... But why did she put her hand on her side?... They must have another chair before the table... He had exclaimed:
‘A letter. To go by express. To Edward Porter... Esquire... Something Street... Hoboken. You have his street number... “Sir, we have your letter of this morning’s date with MS. We regret that we know nothing of the agreement of which your letter makes mention and are therefore returning the MS. by messenger, to whom pray give receipt”.’
Notterdam was astonished at the collectedness with which he had dictated... He said:
‘Have it signed by the firm and initialled... No....’ He said:
‘No, no! Ask Mr. Ephraim Post himself to sign it....
That will give it weight.. The shadowy Post... Of 1792....
She was looking at him with a glow of triumph in her dark, shadowed Southern eyes... Or perhaps it was not triumph... After all, he, Notterdam, was a proper man... A representative figure amongst New York citizens. It was perhaps domination.
He had said to her:
‘Now you can radio to Kratch.. She had sunk down in the chair that Miss Cresswell had vacated and, leaning over, displaced his sacred telephone fittings... She was the only soul in the world whom he could see do that with equanimity... She had the air of a votaress at a shrine; her red lips pouted as if towards an embrace; her little right breast touched the leather of the table top....
What the devil was Porter going to do? What form were his reprisals going to take? He imagined the pallid wasp opening the letter. Gnawing, gnawing at his moustache. Shewing it to the bundle of pipe-stems that he called a wife. Lola, by name... What in hell’s name would he do?
The girl had said:
‘Give me Mr. Kratch’s private wireless operator....’ She looked up at him for instructions.
He said in a businesslike way:
‘Phrase it yourself for me... No, make it a message from you to him... To the effect that I will make no more... Oh, express it yourself....’
Porter, as if ghostly, pallid as always, was before his eyes. How would he take being double-crossed who was so wasp-like himself? For that was what, in effect, it was... Porter had trepanned him, Notterdam, into signing a contract that he would never otherwise have signed.... Then he had let Notterdam get off with the signed copy, so that his teeth were drawn... He would have only his own signature so that Notterdam could allege that it was just a drunken freak on Porter’s part... Double-crossing: that was what it was... A typical case....
After having said:
‘Get this message without fail to Mr. Kratch on the Onomonia. If his apparatus is not yet set up, keep sounding until you get him... Without stopping...’ she had begun to say with pauses between each word:
‘Message begins stop... Mister... Notterdam... consents... consents... not content... to suspend.. all chain... c-h-a-i-n... contracts... till... your... complete... conval... no... health and... leisure... stop. Repeat that...
It was curious how all Southerners with their soft voices closed the open’ o’ sound. Even she. When she said ‘No,’ it was as if the vowel had the German tréma faintly suggested. Like ‘No.’
He said rather gruffly:
‘Say anything you like... And add my love... Kind love... No, dear love, if you like... I shouldn’t mind....’
He heard her say:
‘Add... So very glad... stop... Mr. Notterdam send his very dear love... stop... message ends....’ He could see her eyes were full of tears. Then his own were. Thirty odd years is a long time to have been a man’s pal.... A knife went into his heart... How many months had she been Kratch’s mistress? Because she had said:
‘The signature is... Henrietta...’ Her face was pallid: her lips were going white. If she signed ‘Henrietta...’ Then... After all, why should she be reserved for him? Kratch had no doubt found her as desirable... Her lips were moving... She said:
‘F.F.F.F.... Yes, yes...’ and then very quickly:
‘Faukner Felise.. The name was like rain on parched gravel.
He could not understand why he was looking down her back... He had done nothing to that end... Little shoulder blades! White... With delicate down, going down into darkness beneath a blue silk that bulged ever so little up... She had fainted of course... Then she must be with child by Kratch. Girls to-day only faint when they are with child... Her head was on the leather of the table... He was now behind her... Extending his hands... But where should he touch her?... He could not touch her... Nature could not do it... He was afraid. He shouted... Miss Cresswell was in the ante-room.
He found himself impressing very solemnly on Miss Bergenheimer that she was to go herself with Miss Felise to his own doctor.
She said:
‘Well, you don’t have to tell me three times... I can do a hole like that in one with the mashie!’
Miss Brooke Phelps said:
‘I hope you won’t bully that kid... She’s a swell kid in every sense of the word... You go easy with her, Joe.... Caspar would never forgive you....’
Then the faded daffodil that the obese Miss Bergenheimer was supporting out of the room was certainly not Kratch’s mistress - for the Brooke Phelps certainly was... that calmed many perplexities.
Until he was in the tepid airs of the Assyrian bathroom, the girl had relatively disappeared from both his under and his upper minds... It had been like taking a rest at the ninth hole... White, winged lions in very low relief on alabaster - certainly beautiful - raised open jaws and irritated him. They were Kratch’s lions...
Kratch penetrated not only into his own intimate morality but into his domestic intimacies... The very children applauded him, he, Notterdam, being He, the villain - or the patient but inimitably stupid ass, the inefficient burden-bearer of the establishment. Kratch its life’s hero!
That Elspeth admired - whilst disliking - Kratch he was more than sufficiently aware. In the twenty years or so of their married life she had let drop at least five times when misfortunes had assailed Notterdam some such words as that if he had been Kratch their affairs would have been quite otherwise prosperous. Five times in twenty years is not often. It had been sufficient to let Notterdam know that the frame of mind had been very permanent. Her sardonic smile really signified that she was thinking that it was lamentable that she had married himself instead of Kratch. And indeed he was pretty aware that the reason why, whenever his circumstances had become embarrassing, he had never called upon Kratch for assistance or even counsel, lay actually in a sort of jealousy of his wife’s attitude towards her former, unsuccessful suitor. In the old days they had never borrowed the one of the other and had never talked of their separate finances. They had had no separate finances. The one would have perhaps forty dollars and the other not so much as a dime. Then the one grubstaked the other without a word said. After the marriage of the Notterdams what had been only habit before had become with Notterdam himself at first merely a principle like another and then almost a bitter principle... There came to his mind a deserted mine-shaft in the North-west, up towards the Canadian border; with a swift river flowing near it and the shade of willows on the bank in the terrifying sunlight... Forty miles from the nearest shack they had had to tell each other that they neither of them had so much as one penny... The disadvantage of taciturnity had forced itself upon them... The sunlight filtering and quivering through the thin grey foliage and an immense, baking hill of bare slag behind them... It occurred to him that it would be splendid to take Henrietta Felise to see that spot. Where Kratch and he had not one penny - and she and he rolling there in a shining Chesapeake car so well sprung that it took no stock of the ruts in the road there....
