Anthony Powell - Casanova’s Chinese Restaurant

‘I see you asked Carolo,’ I said.

Moreland, although always perfectly friendly – indeed, making more effort with Carolo than he usually did with gloomy, silent geniuses – never gave the impression of caring much for his company. I supposed Carolo’s invitation due to some inflexion of musical politics of which I was myself ignorant, and about which, to tell the truth, I felt very little interest. However, this comment seemed to sober Matilda, or at least to change her mood.

‘We had to ask him,’ she said. ‘No choice of mine, I can assure you. It was all on account of the Maclinticks. As Carolo lives in the same house as the Maclinticks, Hugh thought it would be awkward if he didn’t get an invitation. Hugh was very anxious for Maclintick to come – in fact wouldn’t hear of his not coming. Hugh and Maclintick are really great friends, you know.’

‘The Maclinticks were having a full-dress row when I left them a short time ago.’

‘They always are.’

‘They should lay off for an hour or two on occasions like this. A short rest would renew their energies for starting again when they return home.’

‘That is just married life.’

‘To be married to either of the Maclinticks cannot be much fun-’

‘Is it fun to be married to anyone?’

‘That is rather a big question. If you admit that fun exists at all – perhaps you don’t – you cannot lay it down categorically that no married people get any fun from the state of being married.’

‘But I mean married to someone,’ said Matilda, speaking quite passionately. ‘Not to sleep with them, or talk to them, or go about with them. To be married to them. I have been married a couple of times and I sometimes begin to doubt it.’

We were now in the midst of dangerous abstractions which might once more threaten further embarrassments of the kind I hoped to avoid. Generalisations about married life could easily turn to particularisation about Moreland and Priscilla, a relationship I should prefer to investigate later, in my own way and time, rather than have handed to me on a plate by Matilda; the latter method almost certainly calling for decisions and agreements undesirable, so it seemed to me, at this stage of the story. I was also very surprised by this last piece of information: that Matilda had had a husband previous to Moreland.

‘You have been married twice, Matilda?’

‘Didn’t you know?’

‘Not the least idea.’

I wondered for a moment whether Sir Magnus Donners could possibly have married her clandestinely. If so – and that was very unlikely – an equally clandestine divorce was scarcely conceivable. That notion could be dismissed at once.

‘I was married to Carolo,’ she said.

‘My dear Matilda.’

‘That surprises you?’

‘Immensely.’

She laughed shrilly.

‘I thought Hugh might have told you.’

‘Never a word.’

‘There is no particular secret about it. The marriage lasted a very short time. It was when I was quite young. In fact pretty soon after I left home. Carolo is not a bad old thing in his way. Just not very bright. Not a bit like Hugh. We used to quarrel a good deal. Then we didn’t really get on in bed. Besides, I got tired of him talking about himself all the time.’

‘Understandably.’

‘After I left Carolo, as you know, I was kept by Donners for a time. At least people are all aware of that. It is such a relief not to have to explain everything about oneself to everyone. We met just about the time when Donners was getting restive about the way Baby Wentworth was treating him. He was taking Lady Ardglass out quite often too, but she never really liked being seen with him. I think she found him terribly unsmart. So did Baby Wentworth, I believe, if it comes to that. I did not mind that drab side of him. I got tired of him for other reasons, although he can be nice in his own particular way. He is awful, of course, at times. Really awful. But he can be generous – I mean morally generous – too. I am not interested in money. One thing about Donners, he does not know what jealousy means. When Baby was running round with Ralph Barnby, he did not mind at all. That did not affect me in one way, because unlike so many women, I prefer only one man at a time. But it is nice not to be bothered about where you went last night, or where you are going to tomorrow afternoon. Don’t you agree?’

‘Certainly I do. Was Carolo like that – jealous in that way?’

‘A bit. But Carolo’s chief interest is in making conquests, he doesn’t much mind who it is. I shouldn’t wonder if he doesn’t run after Audrey Maclintick. Probably Maclintick would be glad of someone to keep her quiet and take her off his hands. What a bitch she is.’

‘All the same, there is a difference between being fed up with your wife and wanting another man to take her off your hands.’

‘There wasn’t in Carolo’s case. He was thankful when I fixed myself up. That is part of his simple nature, which is his chief charm. I had really left Donners by the time I met Hugh. What do you think about Hugh?’

‘I should guess that he was not particularly jealous as men go.’

‘Oh, I don’t mean that. He isn’t. I mean what do you think of him as a man?’

‘You know quite well, Matilda, that he is a great friend of mine.’

‘But his work… I do think he is… frightfully intelligent… a great man… whatever you like. Everything one says of that sort always sounds silly about someone you know – certainly someone you are married to. I had quite enough of being told my husband was a genius when I was Carolo’s wife. But you do agree about Hugh, don’t you, Nick?’

‘Yes, I do, as a matter of fact.’

‘That is why I am so worried about the symphony. You see, I am sure it will not be properly appreciated. People are so stupid.’

I longed to hear more about Sir Magnus Donners; whether some of the very circumstantial, very highly coloured stories that circulated about the elaboration of his idiosyncrasies, were at all near the truth. However, the moment to acquire such information, the moment for such frivolities, if it had ever existed, was now past. The tone had become too serious I could not imagine what the next revelation would be; certainly nothing so light-hearted as a first-hand account of a millionaire’s sexual fantasies.

‘Then there is this business of both of us having a career.’

‘That is always difficult.’

‘I don’t want never to act again.’

‘Of course not.’

‘After all, if Hugh wanted to marry a squaw, he could easily have found a squaw. They abound in musical circles. It is the answer for lots of artists.’

‘Hugh has always been against squaws. Rightly, I think. In the long run, in my opinion, a squaw is even more nuisance than her antithesis – and often cooks worse too.’

‘Then why do Hugh and I find it so difficult to get on together?’

‘But you always seem to get on a treat.’

‘That’s what you think.’

‘Well, don’t you – when you look at the Maclinticks, for example?’

‘And then…’

I thought for a moment she was going to speak of the child’s death, which I now saw had dislocated their marriage more seriously than anyone had supposed from the outside. Instead, she returned to her earlier theme.

‘And now he has gone and fallen in love with your sister-in-law, Priscilla.’

‘But-’

Matilda laughed at the way in which I failed to find any answer. There was really nothing for me to say. If it was true, it was true. From one point of view, I felt it unjust that I should be visited in this manner with Matilda’s mortification; from another, well deserved, in that I had not already acquainted myself with what was going on round me.