PEBRVARDS
Piay
Maurice Rowdon.


CHARACTERS, in the order of their appearance:
GLEN.
HOTEL MAI D.
JOHN PALERMO.
MURIEL.
SAM.
LOUISE GRIGG.
PROFESSOR JEFFERSON GRIGG.
Mr Parsons
MYRA,
LEONARD HARCOURT SELSEY.
PERCY KLYDONHALL.
JACK RYAN.
CHARLES DORNELLING.
FIRST POLICEMAN.
SECOND POLICEMAN.
Waiters etc.
THE ACTION TAKES PLACE IN ENGLAND.


NOTE.
Scene-changing---or rather, the changing of
props---should be incorporated into the action
of the play, while GLEN is talking. Props
may even be. handed to him, or a chair placed
for him. No attempt should be made to con-
ceal or hurry the work of the sceneshifters.
They should seem to be collaborating with him,
in the act of unfolding a story. In the int
ervals the stage will therefore be clear of
props, and sceneshifting will only begin again
with the action. The same should apply to
the beginning of the play.


Glen i Zusniy san:
taistape - emple
Props enupfe
fach
ablc 1 f
A a hos doelu lu
thans Le l"s rA lucf
Hdtel room. GLEN is in his
yndervest and short pants.?
GLEN:
It was one of those stuffy rooms that make you think
of old times---a pile cloth on the table, a couple of
arnchairs, a lamp with tassles. There was a phone by
my bed which I swore, not to use for long-distance calls
to my wife, just to hear ber voice. I could. manage
five days of hotel life. After that, not a sue.
Well, I'd been poorer in my life. (Takes up phone)
And who said I was_poor? I had a wife and a new-born
child. You cen't' be richer than that. Hullo, hullo?
Could you send me up some breakfast, please? Eggs,
yes.
(Replaces phone) I hadn't hung my suits up the
night before (eyeing his suitcase on the floor), expect
ing my wife to do it. She*d bought me a special suit-
case so that they didn't get ereased. You hang them up
inside and get tangled in pockets and zips, and all yo ur
studs fall out. (Lowering himself to the floor)
He begins a Yoga exercise.
MAID enters.
MAID:
Oh, dear--- (Backs out)
GLEN:
It's all right. Come in.
MALD:
I thought it was two people at first. You see every-
thing in my job.
GLEN:
No, there* S only one of me here.
MAID:
Did you ring for breakfast?


GLEN:
That's right.
MAID:
Tea or coffee, they wanted to know.
GLEN:
Tea-I never miss it. It costs twice as much where
I live.
MAID:
Oh, yes?
GLENS
Not far from Naples. I'm in wine. Left my
out there.
family
MALD:
Oh, you're over on business, sort of.
GLENE
An advertisement. I wrote in and asked for details,
And they said comejover and - see us. Well, I might
maie some money. It isn't easy making money on the
land these days. 5
MAID:
No, that's right.
GLEN:
The weather started going wrong. About five years ago.
Terrible winds, too much rain for the vines, frost in
May. I lose a quarter of my crop sometimes. Can't
take anything for granted nowadays, can we?
MAID:
Ho, that's right. t Do you always do that of a morning?
GLEW:
Three times a day.
MAID:
What's it for?
GLEN:
Stiff back, low spirits. I don't say I work in the
fields much but when I do it's all bending.
MALDE
You ough t to have my back, mate.
GLEN:
Do you bend a lot?
MAID:
Well, beds, heavy trays--it all adds up. I'll get
you your breakfast, number twenty-three.
She leaves.
GLEN:
That's better. - Now for the plunge. (Rummages in
suitcase for letter and finds it) Full breath.
(Dials a number) Hullo, is Mr Jonathan Chandler
Williams there, please?
SECRETARY (we hear her voice over the speakers) Who's speaking?
GLEN:
My namets Glen.
SECRETARY: Is ho expecting a call from you?
GLEN:
Well, no---I just wanted an appointmen t.


SECRETARY: This month?
GLEN:
what? I want it tomorrow. Or even today.
SECRETARY: Oh, he can't manage that,
GLEN:
I've come a thousand miles to see him, he'd better.
SECRÉTARY: Oh, did Mr Chandler Williams write to you?
GLEN:
Yes.
SECRETARY: Could you hold on a minu te, please?
A pause for murmurs etc.
CHANDLER WILLIAMS (also over the speakers) Hullo, "Chandler
Willians here.
I anshs
brt
laamnere
GLEN:
Hullo, my name' s Glen. I wrote to you from Italy.
CHANDLER WILLIAMS: Oh, yes, that's right. Just arrived?
GLEN:
Lats night, yes. f.om Ttalg.
CHANILER WILLIAMS: Well, look here, suppose you go and see Mr
Palermo. He's really in charge gf this, it' 8 his
pigeon.
GLEN:
Well, could you tell me what the work's in connection
with?
CHANDLER WILLIAMS: Well, as I say, I think you ought to talk to
Mr Pal ermo aboutathat. He can xax put you in the pict-
ure better tha I can.
GLEN:
It's work by commission, isn't it?
CHANLDER WILLIAMS: * That's right.
GLEN:
It doesn't mean going from door to door, does it?
CHANDLER WILLIAMS: Oh, no, I don't think so. But you'd better-
GLEN:
Do I - have to sell anything?
CHANILER WILLIAMS: Well, in a sense, I suppose, yes. But John'1l--
GLEN:
In what sense?
CHANLDER WILLIAMS: Well, I mean, you have to sell yourself in a
GLENS
Myself?
CHANZLER WILLIAMS: Well, as I say, Mr Palermo can explain it
much better, really. It's his baby, entirely.


You'll like him--I mean, if you come from Italy--
he's got foreign blood. A great spark.
GLEN:
But don't I get any sort of income at all?
CHANILERY WILLIAMS: You get a pretty big commission, so I don't
think income is going to worry you. Look, let me give
you John's address. He's got an office in Maidenhead
Lane, just off the City. Harf way down, number eighty,
it might be eighty-A.
GLEN:
Half a minute. I'll get a pencil. Maiden---?
CHANILER WILLIAMS: Maidenhead Lane, number eighty or eighty-A.
Half way down, first floor.
GLEN:
Well, thank you.
CHANDLER WILLIAMS: Pleasure. Go and see him today. And I
hope we meet some time: Good bye.
GLEN:
Good bye.
(Replaces phone) So I went to see Johnny
Palermo. He was lean and smart.' His eyes were grey,
which one only noticed after thinking them black like
his hair, and they seemed filmed-bver, by smoking perhaps,
or late nights. His mouth was well formed and ruby-red,
with something petulant about it, and his skin smooth,
darkly olive. When he frowned it was as if two little
biack lines had suddenly been painted in between his eye-
bro Ws; and weren*t natural there at all, disappearing
quickly and leaving amoo thness again. 'Call me Johnny',
he said.
JOHNHY PALERMO' S office.
PALERMO: Did he tell you I was related to one of the Czars of
Russia?
GLEN:
PALERMO: That my father used to be a big shot in the Mafia?
GrHEN: No.
PALERMO: Or that I used to run a ho'tel in Cairo---and a damned
good one it was, too?
GLEN:
PALERMO: Well, it's all true. of coursa, it may not be up your
street, that's for you to decide.
All you need is
a bit of neck--and powers of persuasion.


Onge - /
Gier
nahl
GLEN: You need neck for everything.
Mactache ctoshiar
PALERMO: Another thing, tuck yourself under somebody's wing
who doesn't really want you there. If they hate you,
get closer. They'll learn to like it. Hatred's a
business property, Glen--mind if I call you that?
GLEN:
PALERMO: And you call me Johnny. You see, Glen, they're all
missing something, everybody is, and you've got to
make them feel it's you. It can happen in a minute.
Girls have lost their honour's in a minute, men their
fortunes. You see, people feel low these days, they
don't know who they are, they haven't got time.
And that's where my pictures come in.
GLEN:
What pictures?
PALERMO: All life is picturés. A man has a picture of himseli,
and he has a picture of other people based largely on
his picture of himself. I tell you, old chap, I've
worked all this out, a man has a picture of what his
clerks and typists think of him, and he-doesnet
know who he is, sometimes that picture' s good, and
sometimes it's horrible. And this is where he needs
me. He needs a steady picture. I provide steady
pictures. Now he mey not believe in me. That's all
right. He believes in the picture I give him, because
he needs it. He may look down on me and think I'm a
scrounger, but he takes the picture I give him, though
usually he can't see that very-oloverty I've made him
compare himself favourably with me. Then he sees bits
in the papers, and though he knows I put them in he
still thinks they're the truth, he needs to think so,
you see. Now I dare say you smiled when Chandler
Williams said you were going to sell youreelf. But
I'll show you how it's done. In fact, it happens all
the time.
GLEN:
But what about--?
PALERMO: You sep, Glen, the way people are formed in our world,
their pictures are very poor. But everybody thinks
he's something. This you can take as your sketch, and
begin from there. Naturally the picture must be one
the man can deceive himself into thinking is himself.
You ca't sell a badxnanmmazazgaadxandrmapakgizganzzEnnnkk
axbudamnxanx fool as a clever man, but you can sell a
bad man as a good one, in fact that's one of my principal
sal es. Never try to give a man what you think his
picture ought to be if he ware you. Let him walk into
the jaws of hell if he vants to, he may like it there.
MURIEL, his secretary, enters.


MURIELE It's lunch timeo
PALERMO: Well,: go and eat, darling.
MURIEL: That's what I'm waiting to do.
PALERMO: Listen, honey, I pay at the end of the month,
MURIEL: Except whem it comes, then you pay quarterly. Come on,
cough, I'm hungry.
PALERMO: Will a quid be enough? (Handing it to her) Better be.
Oh, darling, before you go, bring me in the midday final,
will you? I've got a horse running.
MURIEL (leaving) I hope it loses.
PALERMO: Jack Ryan, (opening a drawer and taking out whisky
bottle and two glasses) Jack Ryan is to my mindpthe
finest editor in town. He puts my pictures in the
paper. Here's health.
GLENS
Heal th.
They drink.
PALERMO: Well, Glen, if you.really have left several acres of
boose to do business with me, you've found your man.
GLEN:
Do you think you've fou und yours?
PALERMO: I'll tell you when I have doubts--the minute they
happen:
MURIEL brings midday paper.
PALERMO (studying the paper at once) By the way, this is
Mr Glen, Muriel.
GLEN:
How do you do.
MURIEL: Hullo. (Leaves).
PALERMO (still studying) Work's my whole life. I come in at
fb ur in the morning sometimes. My evenings at the
club are all business, really. Nice. club... called
the 1810- -Muriell! Muriel, come back quick!
MURIEL (appearing again) I--1
PALERMO: Take this down. Professor Grigg. G-B-L-G-G.
Get his number, we'll be bold. He's an American.
Just arrived in Cambridge and they're putting him up
at King's College. Say you're the Times.
MURIELS The what?
PALERMO: Sey you're the Times and lr Palermo the features editor


would be glad of a word with him. (She leaves)
And you, read that.
(Pointing at the paper) That's
him and his wife, at Southamp ton. I don't know why it
is, Jack Ryan' just floods me with work!
GLEN:
He's a visiting professor. He's giving a series of
lectures here and on the Continent. He's written a
book on nuclear warfare. It made him famous because
of his claim that if the Bomb went off it wouldn*t
destroy the world or even create chaosp onergahers.
Called I Afterwards'. He's about forty, with a wife
named Louise. He says we: should rationalise hell-
(looking up) funny you should mention hell, how some
peoplo
PALERMO's phone rings.
PALERMO: We're thoret - (Grabbing phone) Hullo, yes. Yes,
Features here. Well, professor, good morning!
Now, listen, professor, there's no point in breaking
it gently, I want t'an interview. I'm sending a man
up this afternoon," Tell him the truth, only not of
courss the whole truth, we don't want E 8 mo
libel suits. And we're interestod in your wife.
All American ladies fascinate use I hope you won't
mind her coming in'to the picture (giving the picture
in the paper another ravenous look), it humanises
things. Well, professor, can I send this lunatic of
mine by the next train? Give us son mething good, eh?
AXRUXEAXGEXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Here's my number,
by the way. We*re not exactly in the Times building
but a stone's throw away. Good bye, then. (He hangs
up) Now, then, he docked at Southampton only yesterday
but he still mayknow somebody on the Times. So. get
there quick, I don't want him cone Ccting up.
GLEN:
What? Do you mean to say you're sending me?
PALERMO: Well, who else is there to send?
GLEN:
But what the hell do I a a ask?
PALERMO: You don't ERf anything. You. state and lead, and let
him shoot his mouth off. Listen, if you're not back
by eight this evening I could go to clink for this,
it's an offence to imitate newspapers.
GLEN:
I can imagine.
PALI ERMO: Now if he comes out with a straight question about old
So-and-So on the Times tell him the secretary never said
Times at all but Chimes, it's a church magazine, some-
thing quick and so much a lie that it sounds the truth.
GLEN:
Suppose the Times sends a man too, I'll look pretty
funny, won't 1?.


PALEAMO (looking up a train timetable) Well, of course, that's
just pessimi ism. There's one at three, fifty-nine.
You'li have to rush.
(Jumping up) Come on, what are
you waiting for, you won't pick up a commission like
that, you know! Heret s a fiver. And I want the change
even if it's one ând sixpence. Don't forget (as GLEN
leaves), go to King's College. Above all get her talk-
ing, you'll learn far more. And, Glen (who has now gone),
if there should be a Times man there, say Have you heard
this one, our secretary phoned up this American geezer
and said she was the Times, what a scream eh, and some
cheek, she's always doing it, her way of a joke, it'll
get her into trouble one dayt e He looks so help-
less.
Porter' S lodge, King's College.
GLEN:
It was dark when I arrived and I got a taxi at Palermo's
expence. Lights wefe on in the college rooms. Youths
hurried by with bright, perplexed, untouched faces.
The porter' in his aarm little office couldn't place any
Professor Grigg, and I thought for a moment that Palermo
had sold me for a puppy. But he came in yesterday.
PORTER: Not in here he didn't.
GLEN:
But the papers said he did.
PORTER: Not this college, mate. But I'll call the Bursar if you
like, just to make sure. (Goes into inner office) Sam Rese.
Hullo, is the Bursar there? Theret S a gentleman here,
akiix
says have we an American professor by the name of Grigg,
arrived yesterday, and it was in the papers? I see,
yes, vell, I was going to say, we haven't had that name,
not as passed through here. I thought I might have missed
your Buttery list today, how are your legs, air, all
right? (Returning) well, I've been on to the Bursar
and he sayd, yes, there' 8 a professor of that name and
the papers have got it wrong like they get everything
wrong, and he's staying in digs, and the college never


invised him to give any lectures. Anyway, he* 8 not
here, and he's not ours.
GLEN:
Lucky for you. He wiites books about how it's going
to be all right if an atom bomb falls.
PORTER: Oh, does he?
(Strokes his chin). Oh.
GLEN:
Can you give me his address?
PORTER:
If you like to slip across there to the Bursar*s office,
they'1l give it to you.
GLIN:
How do they know, if they didn't invite him?
PORTER: Are you a reporter?
GLEN:
Yes.
PORTERS I thought you were. Job I wouldn't mind. Used to
be a policeman. Better than padding round streets
trying the locks on. the doors, You get around a bit,
I dare say?
GLEN (as he begins to leave). Yes.
PORTER: Working for which paper would that be?
GLEN (calling out) Agency. Articles syndicated.
PORTER: Oh, yes. Nothing simple in this world. I thought you
was going to say something gl anorous like the Times.
The GRIGG apartment.
GLEN:
I walked through the early Cambridge night, past
shop windows where vapour had formed, along narrow
lanes. I found their place, a tall apartment block
that shone in the narrow mediaeval lane like a gilt
fool. There was a glowing foyer and a porter more


splendid than Sam. A lift, too: one of those that
seem not to move. Then a tall white doorway with a kind
of Palladian frame, and @ quiet bell (we hear this) that
showed a tiny light behind, where the name Dornelling and
not Grigg was printed. A girl smelling of kitchen
dhowed me in. Then the professor's wife
LOUISE GRIGG enters.
GLEN:
--great laughter lines round her mouth---eyes screwed
LOUISE:
Are you the fake Times man?
GLENS
Yes.
LOUISE: well, come in and have a drink. He's waiting for you.
Where the hell is he? Well, sit yourself down.
GLEN:
How' did you know I was fake?
LOUISE: A real Times man called us up. He went to college with
Jeff.
GLENS
There was a mistake in the office, I think---some girl,
she* s new--I didn* t get the details.
LOUISS: I certainly got some hot talk from your office---that
man's certainly got, mouth--
GLEN:
You talked to a man?
LOUISE: At your agency, if that isn't fake too.
What can I mix
you?
GLEN:
I'd like a whisky and soda.
LOUISE (mixing) Jofft Come on, will you? He's shy, that's
all (with a wink).
JEFFERSON GRIGG enters.
GRIGG:
well, look at that. wife drinks with unknown visi tor.
itals
LOUISE: And where the hell do you go in tho winter time? I was
looking everywhere!
GRIGG:
As a matter of fact, I wonder you didn't hear me pull
the chain. How are you, Mr--?
GLEN:
Glen.
GRIGG:
She'll be following me round with bloodhounds soon.
LOUISE: That' S something for you to print.
GLEN:
I'll print what you say I can print.


LOUISE: Well, our visitorts a gfentlemen at least.
GRIGG:
Oh, for Christ's sake don't bring in that word.
Gentle eman, my arse. Anyway, get me a drink, I've
had an afternoon of Cambridge dons and all they drink is
tea.
LOUISE: Get it. yourself.
GRIGGS
Boy, you sound high already:
LOUISE: I am.
GLEN:
Well, marriage isn't all a bed. of roses, is it?
GRIGG:
You're telling me. It's been like this for ten years
and we believe in it. Is that right, Louise?
LOUISE: I guess it is.
GRIGG (with his drink) Listen, what kind of an outfit have you
got up there?
GLEN:
Well, sort off agency..
GRIGG:
You sound quite a crew. First you fake a call from the
Times, then your boss seduces my wife down the phone.
That was about the randiest phone conversation we ever
heard, what do you say, Louise?
LOUISE: I'm keeping quiet. Can you stay to dinner?
GLEN:
I'd love to.
LOUISE (leaving) I'll tell the girl.
GRIGG:
Was that strong enough?
GLEN:
I'll say.
GRIGG:
Let me get you another (taking his glass).
GLEN: +
You're giving a few lectures? The pepers were right
aboutathat, Insuppose? They were wrong about your
address, said you were at King' S.
GRIGGE
I'm lecturing in seven countries, Glen. I'll be on and
off that damned Continent like a jack in the box.
LOUISE (returning) Louise is going to feel lonesome all right.
GRIGG:
Well, you're not exactly a stay-at-home girl, so I don't
think you'll suffer.
LOUISE: Still, this ian't London.
GRIGG:
You'll be therel
(Handing GLEN his drink) Listen,


Gnisiook
Eulage
Ton
now
Lou
how does the English press see me? You know, that's
my reason for coming over, I got such a hall of a bad
press for this book of mine. You. know, I never did say
the bomb was nice.
LOUISE: Listen, Jeff, I think you'd better see if she's put the
glasses out right.
GRIGG (leaving) Jesus, can't she even do that?
LOUISE: Don't take too much notice of hime He's overwrought
with too much work. Are you married, Mr--?
GREN:
Call me Glen. Yes, I am.
LOUISE: Children?
GLEN:
One, new born.
LOUISE: Oh, well, that's nice.
GRIGG (returning) You know, this girl can't lay cutlery. Is
that a peculiarity' of the Irish? Listen, Glen, I can
put it all in a nutshell. I wrote a book called
Atterwards about how to save humanity in the event of
a nuclear war, and that went all over the world as my
advocating nulcear war, Now I wouldn't mirdi if people
knew what I meant by the Afterwards but they don't.
They think I mean after the Bomb falls, in the future,
but I don't. I mean now. I mean ever since Hiroshima,
in 1945. A curtain fell on history, Glen, and we live
in the afterwards of that. It changed everything.
We're all living on a precipice. Just a touch of some-
body's finger and the whole. world disappears. That's
a big change, and nobody seems to realise that it produces
a completely different sort off life. It means there's
no thing cosy ay more, no thing we can reallycall our own-
gherefore no intimacy. Do you see what I me an? It
means we're all pawns, we're extras on a film set where
you never see the man who runs it all, and you don't know
what the film* S about, but you go through the scene out of
habit and because everybody else is doing it. But we
don't have the power of decision any more! And we've got
to face up to that. No more cosy little Exs* crises like
you go L in the old Hitler days, no more cosy INT raids
when people could get a kick out of the bang. It's all
phoney, Glen, what we experience nowadays, all our family
life, everything- because it's under sentence of death.
Remember what Macbeth -says arter his first murder? 'From
this instant there's nothing serious in mortality, all
is but toys, grace and rebown is dead, the wine of life is
drawn.' * That's us, Glen. The wine of life is drawn,
boy.. We did-a murder in 1945 that we can't turn back
from. We murdered respect for the human creature.
Hitler started breaking the respect down, with his exo
termination camps, but that was only a beginning. Nov


m warkind
Enlasge
he will mite, Sum Te
Thm
pelr
we're right there. We're his children, OK. And we've
got to go on and on, like Macbeth. The murders can't
stop. I'm only facing facts, trying to see some chance
of survival in all this. Old Macbath had to murder all
his friends, we've got to do the same. He had to create
a secret service that spanned all of Scotland, which was
the uiverse as far as he was concerned. And that's
hell. He created hell for everybody round him, even the
ordinary ountry folk near by. They were terrified.
And that's what we're living in now---hell. And people
don't know it.They like to think they're still living in
the Before. But they're faking it. Everythirg looks
the same, from the food they eat to the air they breathe.
But they cantt even breathe God's air any- more. If it
isn't diesel fumes it's radioactive. Now my book After-
wards tries to make 'em face up to that---rationally.
That's what I mean by the rationalisation of hell---one
of my chapter-heads. Since 1945 the human being' s been
dead, Glen. That's my message.
LOUISE: I think dinner's.ready.
GRIGG:
About time too. Mhat does she do out there? Come on,
Glen.
LOUISE: Slow cooks are the best.
GRIGG:
She should be'cooking at the Ritz at that rate.
GLEN falls behind them as they
go' out, so that he remains alone.'
JOHN PALERMO's Office.
GLEN:
Palermo wasn't there when I got back. So we met -
next morning at the office. There were blue rims
under his eyes and he looked pale. The whites of
his eyes weren't really white, they were shot through
with little broken vessels. He must have been over-
doing it.


PALERMO (handing. him a newspaper) What do you think of that, by
the way?
GLEN (reading the headline) I ALWAYS SAY IT'S THE SHAPE THAT
GETS HIM SAYS MISSILE PROFESSOR' S WIFE, ""It' snthe
way that puff of sioke goes up, and the shape, n said
Louise Grigg, 46-yéar-old wife of American professor
Jefferson Grigg, knoun in nuclear circles as Mr. After-
wards. "I guess Freud would have something to say
about that, # she. added with a laugh. Life with Jeff-
erson hasn't always been a bed of roses, though. He
told me confidentially today that they've been coasting
near the divorce . courts for the last ten years. While
no nuclear scientist or even Sunday physicist husky,
deep-voiced Jefferson Grigg has made it his butiness
to study all the published data about the likely
results of the Big Flash when it comes. To quote
his funereal volume Afterwards, we could live quite
snugly in the peace that total devastation secures for
us. - The professor, educated at Stanford university,
believes that we ove our présent happiness to the manu-
facture of nuclear weapons up to saturation point.
"Take the nuclear mushroom, n said his wife, "now if
that's not the symbol of some thing my namet s not Lout"
God, you didn't put all that in, did you? They'1l
think it's mel I actually used the words * bed of
roses' when I was theret
PALERMO: 0f course I did it, there's my touch written all over
it, with a bit of cutting by Jack Ryan. I asked for
a hundred quid and he gave me fifty.
GLEN:
But they're nice peoplet
PALERMO: I know they're nice, I talked to his wife for half an
hour. In fact, I. fixed up dinner with her. what's
she like? Superb, eh? Porty-six is just my dish pf tea.l
GLEN:
She's nice, yes.
PALERMO: Don't keep saying nicet Has she got: it?
GLEN:
It? Yes, I suppose so.
Mirabelle
PALERMO: I'll take her to the Bagatelle then, like she asked me to.


(Phone rings) Hullo? Yes, he's sitting right here.
For you. (Hands GLEN the phone) I must dash.
PALERMO leaves.
GLEN:
Yes?
GRIGG' S voice (over the speakers) Is that Glen? Well, I guess
you know who this. is.
GLEN:
Is that Jeff?
GRIGG:
You can cut out the Jeff and call me professor. You
know what I think of you?
GLENS
GRIGG:
That's a lie. By the sound of your voice, you glass-
eyed phoney, you know what I think of you and you know
I'm right.
GEEN:
Listen, I -
GRIGG:
OK, we know it was you because of that bed of roses touch,
What my wife thinks of you couldn't be put down on paper.
listen, I'm very sorry about this. I don't hate you but
I despise you quite a bit. Mostly I'm just sorry, because
I thought you were. a nice guy. How did you get caught
up in this job?
GLEN:
Well, it just happened, I was
GRIGG: : You can always get out. Ever hear of the emperor
Constantine?
GLEN:
I think so, yes.
GRIGG:
He came back to Rome with all the known crimes on his
shoulders, he' d just about killed everybody in his family,
and he had a hell of a big family. And that's how he
became a Christian, because somebody told him it: was the
only religion that forgave a man everything he did.
Therets still room for you.
GLEN:
Thanks.
GRIGG:
Well, I don't suppose we'll bump into each other again
but if we do it'ii be a big bump. Good bye.
MURIEL enters with tea.
MURIEL: Do you take sugar?
GLEN:
Yes.
MURIAL: How many?


GLEN:
One: Did you hear that?
MURIEL: He sounded angry when I put him thro ugh. I wonder you
went all that way yestorday just because he asks you.
GLEN:
You must have known him a long time.
MURIEL: Not so long. But itts certainly been vivid.
She leaves.
GLEN:
I sat there sipping my tea. It was dark and drab outaide,
fomlangge
with clouds lowering over the roofs. When Palerno came
back I let him have it.
Schiloged
PALERMO enters.
PALERMO: Still here-?
GLEN:
You got me into a nice mess with that professor.
Suppose he sues me for libel?
PALERMO: But whatts he griping about? He asked for publicity
and he got itt
GLEN:
He didn't ask for the kind he got.
PALERMO: All publicity's the same, Glen, it doesn't matter what
you say as long as it takes up space. what the hell
does he think we are, his personal agents or something?
If he wants to émploy [e he can.. In fact, that's a
damned good idea,
Vom mi Lorne
LLLC
Lu ay
pLeaty
iny
GLEN*S HOTEL ROOM,
Just as I was dozing off that night, limp with relief
at being alone again, and thinking of Luigi, the way he
trudges up the hill with the copper-sulphate spray on
his back, his clothes sprayed a bright blue, the phone
rang. It took me some time to come to myself. (we
hear phone ringing) Hullo, hullo?


VOICE OF LOUISE (over the speakers) Hullo, bad boy. I'm with
your boss. He* S trying to seduce me o
GLEN:
Is that Mrs Grigg?
LOUISE: Call me Lou. Listen, I hope you weren't too cut up
this morning. I was listening on the bedroom line.
He flew to Paris this afternoon, thank God. Lecturing
to NATO. Hé calls it the North Atlantic Treason Organ-
isation.
GLEN (sleepily) He does?
LOUISE: You're quite a couple of boys, you and Pal ermo, aren't
you? You know, the thing that got dad's goat was that
bit about how he studied at Stanford University. He
thought nobody knew.
GLEN:
What's wrong vith that?
LOUISE: He looks down on that university: His friends are
Harvard men at the least. Listen, will you tell me
one thing, how you fell into this kind of work?
GLEN:
That's what your husband wanted to knows -
LOULSE: You know, Johnny Palermo says you have about the
wickedest tongue in Fleet Street.
GLEN:
He said that?
LOUISE: And yet you wouldn't think it to look at you. You
look as if you'd just come from the country, growing
corn or something.
GLEN:
That's not far wrong either.
LOUISE: And, listen, if you*ve got a wife and child how is it
you live in a ho tel? Palermo raised that one.
Excuse the familiarity but you started the habit,
kid.
GLEN:
And with that she rang off. (He falls asleep) I
woke up wonderfully early, with bright sunshine
coming through the windows. The maid brought t my
MAID enters, with tray.
MALD:
Nice morning.
GLEN:
That's right.


MAID:
Getting steamed up for your exertises?
GLEN:
Yes.
MAID:
Like to see the paper?
GLEN (as she hands it 'to him) Thanks.
She leaves.
GLEN:
I turned the pages over and came to a column called
Hit Lines of the Week. It was some sort of a gossip
columm. Then I saw a little paragraph, 'Professor
Sefferson Grigg, at present using England as a launching
pad for a series of lectures in seven European countries,
is in the news again. skd Said his wife Louise, 'Jeff
flew to Paris this afternoon. He's lecturing to NATO.'
She added with a husky laugh, 'He calls it the North
Atlantic Treason Organisation. : Here!
(Dials
frantically) Oh, no, you don'tt Hullo, hullo--!
PALERMO (over the speakers) Hullo?
GLEN:
Oh, I'm lucky you come in s0 early because I can spit
in your ear-
PALERMO: what's that? And who is it?
GLENS
It's the man you're trying to fix 'up with cenemies
listen I've just seen that bit:
in the papers about
Grigg---what is it (frantically peering)?--Hit Lines
of the Week--and you've put dow exactly what she said
to me last night. over the phone, it couldn't have been
more than eight hours ago---and she said you said I had
the wickedest tongue in Fleet Street, vell, I've never
vorked in Fleet street, and I'll teli you what you can
do with your job-
PALERMO: Yes?
GLENS
Not that at's a job at all.
PALERMO: Exactly. But I tell you what I'm going to do, I'm
putting you on a contract today, and fifty pounds is
yours on signature. I'm satisfied with your work,
Glen.
GLEN:
what?
PALERMO: Anyway, that man loves every word we say ab out him.
People give their right hands for an attack in the
papers these days. I know a hundred starlets craving
to be smeared. No, Glen, you've done a good job of
work and don't have to blame yourself. with you looking
innocent, and me painting you black, why, that fascinates
people. Call in fbr that contract. (He hungs up)


das
straind
Tha
2 Netinle
simply
scene
Le hsnd,
AME doin
Teon Sun
A bare attic room,
GLEN:
Well, I got my contract, though he denied ever having
said it. All it did was stipulate that I was entitled
to full commission, 80 it was valueless. And I got
twenty. five pounds instead of fifty. But it saved me.
I told him I couldn't afford to stay in a hotel any more
and he said I could nove in upstairs. There was an
attic room above tha office, without furni ture. So
I did, the day after, a bleak Sunday. Not a stick of
furni ture. No light. A wire hanging from the ceiling,
thatts all. I dragged up a chair from the office,
as a bed. For bedclothes I used my overcoat, with
a tovel round my head (he puts these on). It had
started raining and I watched the water running down the
windows, while the street lamps gave me a lot of light.
Not a car passed in two hours. (He is in the chair)
Not a sound from the' other houses: more offices, prob bably.
I woke up cold after mi dnight. MEXKI Went with my eyes
closed (he does it) to get more clothes (8pens cases on
the floor), and pulled out tv more suits and all the
shirts I could find. And piled these on top of me
(does so). That was better. I dreamed about my wine
being sour because of a frost in the heat of summer.
I heard a sharp noise below (jumps), was suddenly in a
aitting position, my heart beating fast and my mouth
open. Something had fallen. Perhaps somebody.
I waited, staring into the darkness. Sound of a chair
being scaaped across the floor downstairs (we hear it).
And the sound of steps-I hoped against hope they weren't
coming upstairs. I leaned forward, ready to spring.
But silence again. I decidedcto see for myself. I
tiptoed outside and saw there was a light below (light
appears at'exit). I heard whispering and this made me
bolder. I walked on down and heard Palermo cough.
I could have laughed with relief. But when he saw me
someone shrieked (woman shrieks), and all at once I had
We Lae a confused picture of Mrs Grigg pulling her blouse up
quickly, sitting on his desk, and he leaping avay as if
Hin
he'd been shot. And they remained thore there, staring
aill at me, while I stared at them. I realised I must make
(het
a surprising picture too, with the towel wrapped round
bor)
my head. I went back upstairs. And after a time
(again in his chair) I heard them tiptoe down the stairs.
When I woke next, morning there were cheerful Monday morn-
ing sounds-- - trucks being unloaded, the click of heels
on their way to work. I decided to buy some furniture,
(raising himself painfully) above all a bad.


CUTrue
A furniture shop.
GLEN:
Two doors avay I fbund a second-hand furni ture
shop. It seemed to be my lucky part of town.
The door made a loud cling when I went in (we
hear this). And a man appeared. He had a white
starched collar on but no jacket, and a flushed, wide
face. He laid a fat hand on one of the bedsteads.
MR PARSONS has appeared,
PARSONS: Well, sir?
GLEN:
I'd like a bed. May be a chest of dfavers if you've
got one, nothing gr and.
PARONS:
What's that, please?
GLENS
A bed.
PARSONS: A bed? Oh, blimey. Now, a bed. There' 8 this,
GLEN:
Yes, that'a the iden.
PARSONS: You'll need a mattress.
GLEN:
Have you got a second-hand one?
PARSONS: No, we don't do that any more, mate. It's not hygienic,
if you follow me.
GLEN:
I'll have to buy a new one, do you think?
PARSONS: Well, you'd be well advised to. I mean, in a city like
this our little hopping friends thrive, don't they?
GLEN:
I * only want it for a few veeks, perhaps months.
PARSONS: I see. I might be able to lay my hands on some thing
if it's only for a few weeks.
GLEN:
You mean you'd want it back?
PARSONS: No, maté, that wouldn't do, would it? Mhat I mean is,
if it don't have to be special I think I can suit you.
It'll be clean if used, as the. actress said to the
bishop. Yes, it won't be this week though.
GLEN:
I need it today.


PARSONS: You an actor?
GLEN:
No, I'm here on business-- and everythines a rush.
PARSONS: I was going to say, I get actors sometimes. Free
tickets have come to me that way. They wantx bits and
pieces for their digs. And then they try to sell them
back. Very unhygienic, some of 1 em. But being sympath
etic to the art I give em a good price, more than I
can afford.
CLEN:
So can we get the mattress today?
PARSONS: I'1l.phone my dumb friend in Nightingale Lane and he
might be able to drive something over.
GLEN:
Would it cost a lot?
PARSONS: I could do you divan and mattress for fourteen quid. and
that's more or.lessiletting it go for the fun of it.
GLEN:
I can't afford fourteen.
PARSONS: Well, tt I might knock off a little bit but it won*t be
less than twelve. €
GLENS : What abouta. ten?
PARSONS: I'll tell you what, give me eleven pounds down now and
I'11 deliver the lot by four this afternoon.
GLINE
I can give you five deposit.
PARSONS: And what about the rest?
GLEN:
The fim'll pay., Two doors down.
PARSONS: Then it'll have to be twelve. I'm lenient with individ
uals but firms have no faces, as I always say. All
right, then, let's see the colour of your money.
(GLEN takes out five pounds) Do you smoke?
GLEN:
PARSONS: Not this? (Showing a small envelope) You never know
when chients want a puff, it,may be their hour of need.
Where you from, the north?
GLEN:
No, Italy.
PARSONS: Therets many must be in need in Italy, mate. Going
back some time?
GLEN:
Yes.


PARSONS: Write me down your address, mate.
GLEN (as PARSONS pushes pieee of paper tovards him) Where, Italy
do you mean?
PARSONS: No, - here. You said you wanted a bed, eh?
GLEN:
Yes. (Mriting)
PARSONS (dialling) I'll phone my dumb friend. Hullo, is that
you? There's ayoung man just come in, he vants to
put in an order, five hundred rubber preventives with
zips on. That's right, mate. Listen, Arthur, get
me out one of them mattresses, have it round here by
twelve noon, mate. (Hangs up) He* s had a nasty life,
Arthur. Seaman. Hates and loathes the sea. Had
his tongue cut out-got on the wrong side in a rov
one night in ' Malaya. He never talks about it. For
obvious feasons. Listen, I don't like to let an intell-
igent man slip through my fingers, I'11 give you bed and
mattress for five quid if you'll. come back and. see me
before you go to Italy.
GLENS
A1Z right.
PARSONS: Don*t let me down, though.
GLEN:
You can't give me a chest of drawers for say ano ther
five quid, can you, just to complete the deal?
PARSORS: Here, you're trying to sell my soul. Al1 right, I'1l
tell you what, I'l1 rake out a little chest of drawers,
I was keeping it for a piecan who likes two hundred
years of grime in his furniture, I'1l send it round
with the rest.
GLEN:
what's the price?
PARSONS: Just you come I und and see me before you go to Italy,
mate.
GLEN:
And after saying that he turned round and went back to
his dark little room.


The Attic Room.
GLENS
In the afternoon it all arrived. Meanwhile I'd bought
some blankets, that was what I needed the rest of my
money for. When the chest of drawers stood against
the wall.with the light from the window on it, humble
and mellow, itmade.me think of civilisation as ir it
was - another life.
Muriel comes in.
MURIEL: There's a letter for you.
GLEN:
It's a Cambridge post mark. I don't want to open it
(handing it. back) it's only insultst You open it.
MURIEL: All right. Blimey. It's a cheque for three hundred
smackers. Lookt
GLEN:
What? Mo'sjit made out to?
MURIELS You.
GLENE
MURIEL: : And there's a letter. That's private.
GLEN : (reading it) 'I've found out the most generous rates for a
syndicated article.and I hope this refunds you for any
loss of copy on my account. Please forget what you
sav in the office last night. For God' s sake take this
and don't be squéamish, not that I exactly associate
squeamishness with you. I shall return the cheque again
and again to you if you refuse it, I implore you to tear
up this letter. I never knew I could get so panicky
but if Jeff finds out about this I'm finished, he'll
fix me for good, he'll rid me of every friend I have in
the States. I don't know if this makes you feel power-
ful but I hope you have a little Christian feeling.
If this cheque is all wrong, I mean if you want something
else, let me know. Yours, Louise Grigg.' Here--give me
that---I'll tear then both upt
MURIEL: Look outt Oh, lord above, het 8 torn up three hundred
quid.
GLEN:
Squeamish, I like thats
MURIEL: Now what did you do that for?
GLENS
It was dirty money, that's why.
MURIEL: So is all money, duck.


GLEN:
She can have all the affairs she likes without paying
MURIELE Oh, well. He'll take it, if you don't.
GLEN:
Who will?
MURIEL (going outs Who do you think?
PALERMO (off) Glent what the hell have you got up there, a
woman?
MURIEL (also off). It's me.
PALERMO (off) OB, that's different.
PALERVO enters.
PALERMO: Well, you've got quite a little palace here: Listen,
Glen, I'll trade you this room rent free for a little
favour. Cambridge tonight.
GLEN:
Cambridge tonight, what do you mean?
PALERMO: The thing is I'm a little scared of Grigg, he's just
returned to Bngl and-
GLENI
I'm scared of him tool
PALERMO: And hets invited you to a party.
GLEN:
What?
PARERMO: Tonight. I arranged it. Well,, she did. I've gone
rather deep with Lou--as you saw, Glen. Be a good chap.
The position is this--I think we should all come to-
gether, like a family--
GLEN:
Oh, not
PALERMO: I don't want him,to feel out in the cold, you see, Glen.
I mean, you seem to know how to grease rusty joints.
GLEN: :
PALERMO: He likes you, apparent tly. He enjoyed the story.
Naturally, I'm letting him think it wasiwho wrote it. /ya
I keep pushing you down Lou's throat as a dangerous
mind, and someone to woo.
GLEN:
Thankst
PALERMO: They*11 both eat out .of your hand. Anyway, for God' s
sake get up there and show him we're not really enemies.


Explain ithil.
GLEN:
All right, I'll go.
PALERMO: Dark suit, begins at eight, arrive at nine.
PALERMO leaves.
GLEN:
I was in the train soon after sevon, with a dark suit
on. Two nights in the role of bedclothes hadn* t done
the suit any good but Murinl had an iron downstairs.
I wasexcited. So much so that the ends of my fingers
were trembling. Country lights, dim and pin-pointed,
shone through the filth of the train windows. A drizzle
started and swept against them---strange that a wind
should start up now. At Cambridge it nearly wrenched
the compartment door out of my hand. Long cars were
parked outside the apartment block. A dustbin lid flev
off somewhere.
The GRIGG apartment.
GLENS . I pressed the bell (it rings) and there was Louise
Grigg suddenly before me, in a chiffon dress slung
low at the neck and hor arms bare. She was flushed
slightly and her eyes were brighter perhaps than I'd
seen them before. A look of fear, the smallest of
twitches, vent through her face when she saw me.
Then her expression settled for a kind of smiling
self-restraint, not friendly at all.
LOUISE GRIGG has appeared.
LOUISE: Like to hang your coat, Glen? Just stroll in. Some
wind tonight,eh?
GLEN:
And how.
LOUISE: There's a man who brings the drinks. with white gloves.
She goes off again vi th his coat.
GLEN:
I looked though to the other room. A pleasant, soft
light cama from there (ve see this). one or tvo heads
were shaved. One of them belonged to an army man in


a uniform that made him look menacingly clean, as if he
was trying to answer an accusation of filth. The women
were pretty. There was a ro ar of male laughter (we hear
this) and I noticed a flushed plump man raise his eyes
and, laughing with the rest, say--in an English voice-
VOICE (off) I couldn't agree moret I absolutely couldn't!
GLEN:
Then the waiter with the white gloves came.
WAIPER enters.
WAITER: Drink, sir?
GLENS
Thanks.
WAITER: Wjisky or dry Martini: no sherry, they like their liquor
hard. You English?
GLEN:
Yes.
WAITER: Thought so. Well, wait for it. You're going to. see
some thing tonight. $
F He leaves again.
GLENS
The doorbell rang (we hear this) and a new group arrived,
Louise giving them a sort of loud family welcome, much
more than she'd given me. And one of the pretty women
came in with a tray of sandwiches.
MYRA enters.
GLEN:
Her dress was the darkest in the room with slightly old-
fashioned flounced sleeves. Her hair was dark too, and
in the dimess---I realised how low the lights were
it framed her pale face like black satin. She reminded
me of a Holbein sketch of one of the Tudors.
MYRA:
Like one?
GLEN:
No, thanks.
MYRAS
I'm in fashion. Name' s Myra. what are you?--forgive
me asking but I have to single you out from the nuclear
nuts.
GLEN:
I'm in wine.
MYRAS
In what?
GLEN:
Wine.
MYRA:
Well, listen to that. Are you drunk most of the time?


GLEN:
MYRA:
Well, why no t?
LOUISE comes in,
LOUISE: Well, how are you two making out? Jeff just arrived,
MYRA:
He* s in wine. Now isn't that something?
LOUISE: Oh, is that what he told you?
GLEN:
A side you don't know: about.
LOUISE: There's a whole lot I: don't know about you, I dare say.
Well, well, you're in wine now, are you? I'll go look
after my guests, they're cascading in.
: She leaves.
MYRA:
You know when I drinki this stuff I get hallucinations.
I see people as all kinds of things.
GLEN:
You do?
MYRA:
What did you say your' name was?
GLEN:
I didn't. It's Glen, anyway.
MYRAS
Listen, Glen, you see that General through there, with
the uniform? Name of Heeley. Nicest guy on earth.
Says his wife went to the top of Eiffel tower and tried
go throw her two babies off, and they shipped her over
to one of the nicest hatches in the state
California.
I screamed with laughter.
GLEN:
why?
MYRA:
Well, isn't it funny? To go through the trouble of
having babies and then throw them off the Eiffel tower?
Anyway, didn't you know this man has orders to gas all
wine merchants in Europe in the event of a nuclear cat-
astrophe? (She slips off her shoes) Well, here we
go. Look at that, G1 en---my first hallucination.
She goes, shoeless.
GLEN:
She meant Jefferson Grigg, who had just walked into the
other room. He shook hands with almost everyone except
the General. Or perhaps they're very old friends.
The room was getting hotter and hotter. Grigg seemed
to have grown taller during his journey, his stride
was more loping and authoritative. The creases of his
face, like reckle ess pencil lines, seemed deeper. And
he was tired, When he saw me he didn*t bat an eyelid.


even
Joagan to suspect a trap: he was being too nice.
GRIGG appears.
GRIGG:
Glad you could come. Bring your wife this time?
GLEN:
No, she's miles away.
GRIGG:
But you're happily married?
GLEN: - Yes.
GRIGG:
I wish I was happily married like that. Perhaps itts
the only way, never see ten.
Louise comes in.
LOUISE: why don't you two take your jackets off?
GRIGG:
A good idea at that. r Peel it off, Glen. We're
informal here.
GLEN:
It's certainly ho t. f
F LOUISE goes again, addressing
: the other room withs
LOUISE (off) Well, doesn't this look co sy.
GLEN:
How did your lectures go?
GRIGG:
Oh, you know how it is. They just goggl ed. Chromo some
damage, alpha radiation, CNS- -they know nothing. They
can't tell axdxghoksibomakek the difference botween fifteen
megatons and a lighted match.
GLEN:
They would if one went off, I expect.
GRIGG:
You're damned right. And the sooner they face up the
better, or it's going to be an awful mess.
GLEN:
What was thatpou said, *CNS*?
GRIGG:
why, he's learning! Central Nervous System Syndrome.
You lose control over your limbs, get very excited, have
difficul ty breathing, sort of black out now and then,
and you're dead in say eight to ten hours.
GLEN:
Sounds a nasty experience.
GRIGG:
See that guy through there? The one bristling with
medals. He won't take his jacket off. Chocolate
soldier. Name of Heeley, General Heeley. We like
to get rid of him and his butler early on. It's his
butler, by the vay. He wouldn*t dirty his hands with


nuclear tools, not him, He thinks he' s in a tradition,
the crumii He even rides a horse. What say to and ther
drink, Glen?
GLEN:
Thanks.
GRIGG:
And take that waistcoat off, you'll fry. I'll put your
stuff in the sack,
GLEN:
The what?
But GRIGG has gone.
GLEN:
No vondér most of theimen had taken their jackets off,
and the women had kicked off their shoes--it was getting
like a furnace. Only the General had his still on, and
he was getting up to leave.
GRIGG appears again.
GRIGG:
whisky and soda, am I right?
GLEN:
Yes.
1 d
GRIGG:
OK, pour it down, foul-mouth. But try and publish the
details of this party and, oh, boy---i Even your boss
won't own you.
GLEN:
Listen, about all that -
GRIGGE
Oh, no, don't give me phoney confessions as vell, I'm
not that gullible. Listen, Louise sold me the iine that
I admire you for your shere damned neck, so let's leave
it at that.
GLEN:
Here, look, that chap's taken his trousers off.
GRIGG:
The General must have gone.
(Calling out) How ges
it, Charles?
GLEN:
Is he knglish?
GRIGG:
Owns this flat, as a matter of fact. One of yo ur defence
men. And a friend of mine---got it?
GRENSX You don't have to worry about me remembering any of this,
I'm drunk,
GRIGG:
I guess I'd better put the heating up.
GLEN:
You mean down.
GRIGG:
You've still got yo ur shotes on. Take : em off!
He leaves.
mrmoa


GLEN:
I untied my shoelaces, when I could find them.
(Does this) Started humming. Not only was the place
hot enough from the central heating but I could/Louise /see
Grigg piling logs on a fire. when aparks flew up the
chimney she and the woman called Myra seemed to think it
a special joke. But none of the other guests seemed
worried. They couldn't all be in a,plot, like people
in a dreame More clothes were coming off. One woman
made no bones about taking off her stockings.
GRIGG comes back,
GRIGG:
Here's your number tag. (Hands him tag with string).
You're number 49.
GLEN:
GRIGG:
Go on, the sacks are through there.
GLEN:
Sacks?
GRIGG (gulping down his drink) Sacks, sacks. Put your clothes
in'them. And theselare Myra 8 shoes. That's her,
a lovels etching outside and a mess in. Put em in
number 23, she al ways takes'that one.
GLEN leaves with shoes.
GLEN : (off) Here, you mean?
GRIGG:
That's right. You know, I really do like you
(as GLEN returns) you're such a damned crook I think
you've made hell your home as thoroughly as I have.
You can look so damneed gxKar innocent. Here, damn it,
can you read my number?... I need glasses.
GLEN:
Thirty-seven.
Grigg:
Yoah, well I'm usually in the thirties.
GLEN:
Those sacks (as GRIGG takes his own shoes out) are
filling up fast.
GRIGG (off) "Son-of-a-bitch if somebody hasn't put his shoes in
mine--a pair of damn big boots. Out you get (sound
of hreavy shoes tumbling). That kind of thing takes a :
whole night to work out, it's like a running sore,
people just won't think (as he appears again).
GLEN:
What's all this for?
GRIGG:
Oh, come on, Glen. Let's have your shirtk.


GLENS
Shirt? You've already got my jacket and my waistcoat.
GRIGG:
Waistcoat? You mean vest.
GLEN:
I've got my vest on under my shirt.
GRIGG:
Yeah, and I got an overcoat under my pants.
They reel about, taking off their
'clothes.
LOUSIE comes in.
LOUISE: Well, I never thought Isd see you tw playing club
pals.
GRIGG:
These English people insist on calling their vests
waistcoats, and he starts telling me he's wearing his
waistcoat under his shirt.
LOUISE: They're screaming for iis, Jeff (as she leaves again).
GRIGG:
I'll be right in. Though they ain't screaming very
loud, are they? (wi th a wink at GLEN) Gimme your gear,
son--49, right?
GLEN:
That's right. (GRIGG leaves) I was as naked as I
intended to get. I me an, I didn't know these people.
I was astonished when Grigg and Louise walked into the
other room stripped of every shzed of clothing, and
everybody made a wild sort of cry (we hear this).
No wonder the lights were so low. Other people started
following their example. The Englishman was already
down to his socks only. He had a very big belly. But
it didn't seem to matter. It was nice, really. what
I mean is it seemed natural. You could hear the soles
of their feet brush on the carpet, and their breathing,
and sometimes a slight stamp of a heel, or the smack of
one of their hands on a buttock or thigh. You could
see that these péople had the ease that comes with power.
They reminded me of English brigadiers and corps comn-
anders during the last years of colonial India, when the
sun had not quite set in their faces, and the investments
were still showing a ybeld, and a pleasant, ungrudging
magnanimi ty soothed and shone its way into their cheeks.
I remembered how they lit their cigarettes, stood in
messes drinking their tea, the comfortable drone of their
voices, and these same unashamed almost feminine movements.
They were exactly like the Englishman of yesterday--the
Englishman of a certain class. They even dressed like
him, much more than we did ourselves. They spoke with
the same casual awareness of great power. Even an


American accent was barely perceptible. Like the
Engl ishman of yesterday, he was suave, fair-minded, self-
assured in manner if not in fact: a new race of imperial
gentlemen. No wonder this Englishman agreed with them
so well, and laughed when they laughed, in a seventh
heaven of nostalgia. for me he was played-out: I could
see the dead ideas playing in his face, as I could hear
therm in his voice. For me he vas hardly an Englishman
at all. But for these Americans he was what they meant
by English. And this-made his voice a shade more harsh
and downright than it would have been with his own native
kind, among whom he had lost caste long agos he was
basking in an empire again, and he seemed to realise that
he preferred it to his own country and certainly to most
of his own countrymen.t In fact, I think that was what
stopped me going into the other roome his presence, alone.
I was a fellow-Englishnan of the kind he had never wanted
to know. So I let him bask, rocked in the feeling that
he was the only Englishman present. He had more contact
with these foreigners than he could ever have with me,
And I realised I could say the sames I had more contact
with them, they were closer to my ways of reasoning, than
he. Which gave them great power---over a divided world.
Yet the power, like the casyal self-assurance, was a
masks. perhaps that was why they threw it off after dark,
and got down 'to grass-roots, which were death and anguish,
with their beaming English clown in tov, playing the
Englishman of yesterday for all he was worth, though he
did it less well than his hosts. An old-world decorum
still hung over them all: when they left the I0 om they
alipped an overcoat or dressing gown over their nakedness.
MYRA enters in a dressing gown.
MYRA:
Have you an idea of my number, honey?
GLEN:
I think it's 23.
MYRAI
A proble em---there to keep a handkerchier with no
clo thes on.
She leaves.
GLEN:
Some time S I thought I saw dawn peeping through the
curtains, but it always turned out to be light
reflected from the dying log fire. I heard someone
To P. 35la)


murmur 'Food* and there was a bustle towards the
door. Louise appeared, looking more like a girl,
her hair untidy.
LOUISE enters, also in a
dressing gomm.
LOUISE: Mind if I sit down? Couldn't quite makt it, huh?
GLEN:
Make what?
LOUISE: Yau still have some clothes on.
GLENS
I was--watc sching... . A
LOUISE: There's not once card the depil ever offered you
that you haven't played, is there? No wonder
you won't show us your naked flesh. I realised,
by the way, that you procured me for Palermo.
You were dead rights my legs went weak the
minute I clapped eyes on him.
GLEN:
what?
LOUISE: He got a neat description off me when you got back
to town--he told me that-
GLEN:
All I said was yes!
To P.36.


LOUISE: I'll tell you what happened. He looked at you with a
leer in his eyes and you nodded. Because you're in
cahoots, the two of you. But he's the better man.
He does some thing. He doesn't just watch. Oh, I
know you're playing at these things. We thought you'd
make a friend at first. Fine thing we got ourselves
into. Frankly, you scare me. Not because you look
scaroy, but because you don't. That's why it's so
uncanny. Why not procure for yourself?
GLEN:
What?
LOUISE (coming closer to him) Listen, Glen, I just don't believe
a man can give up being good. I dontt think it's
possible. For one thing, my religion doesn't allow
me to.
GLENS
Nor does mine.
LOUISE: God in heaven, you're not Catholic, are you? Glen,
go and find a priest," I can take you round to aur little
church in the morning---take communiont I mean,
don't you ever?
GLEN:
What?
LOUISE: Confess?
GLEN:
To a priest? I haven't done, no.
LOUISE: Darling, you look so miserable. I'm not going to let
you be damned. Jeff even wouldn't want me to.
GLEN:
God's the judge of that.
LOUISE: You think we've got no power at all? I'll show you
that isn't truet I might save you---I'm weak and
stupid but I could have a try! (She sits on his 1ap)
A woman's softness could do it. That might be one
weakness you've overlooked--every man is born of woman.
They murmur and coo and fondle.
LOUISE: You refused the cheque, didn't you?
GLEN:
Yes.
LOUISE (kissing him) Shy? Do you want more?
GLEN:
I'm not interested in cash.
LOUISE: Darling, you*1l be good, won't you? Don't let Jeff
hear a thing-- I'm going to soften you, you can't
be hard all the way through! (Kisses him again) Is
that your trouble, Glen?


GLEN:
What?
LOUISE: You aren*t married, are you, darling?
GLEN:
What are you tall king aboute
LOULSE: I won't give up though.
GRIGG comes in.
GRIGG:
Comfortab le?
LOUISE: Jefft Jeff... Take it easy.
GRIGG:
Am I too early or too late?
LOUISE: I haven't done anything!
GRIGG:
I knew it was this one or Palermo. Tell you the truth,
I thought this one wa's too normal for your tastes. why,
you dirty son-of-a-bitch---
LOUISE: Jeff!
GRIGG:
--lowdo wn, two-timing male whore. * *
He disappears for a moment.
LOUISE: Jefft
GRIGE (reappearing with sack number 49, empty, in his hand) I'll
teach you to puli the wool over my eyes, I'll pull this
over yours!
He grabs GLEN and, forcing him back
into his chair, puts the sack over
his head and with a neat movement
ties the strings to the back of the
chair in such a way that GLEN'S arms
are bound too.
GRIGG:
Now try and get out of that.
(GLEN struggles) Coine on,
get back to the nature roome
He pushes LOUISE out. GLEN is
alone again.
GLEN:
Don't you touch met
(Kicks) Hear what I said?
Don't you come near! (Kicks) Louise!
(Lishens)
Are you still here? (Suddenly spins round chair as if
enemy behind) Tney haven't left me like this, have they?
Grigg! Louise! (Struggles to get free)
MYRA comes in.


MYRA (staring) Oh, not No... That's the worst yet!
She flees.
GLEN:
Hullo, hullo? Was that somebody? They must be able
to see me through there. Grigg! Here, he must hare
opened a door---T'll freeze to death! Grigg! I don't
know, people are irresponsible nowadays. They must be
able to see me. They can't think this is normal.
(Tries to untie himself) What's he done? Grigg:
God, what a fool I was to come up here. That Palormo,
I'li give hin something tomorrow morning. God, it's
cold. I suppose I just wait. But I'll freeze to death.
(kicks again, struggles)
LOUISE appears.
LOUISE: OK, cool off.
GLEN (as she unties him) Cool off---I'm frozent You got me
into a nice fix, didn't you?
LOUISE: Gee, I'm sorry.
GLEN:
Ib bet you're not.
: GRIGG comes in with a bottle of
wine, and one glass.
GRIGG:
Kind of a misunderstanding. Here, get this down.
From Charles's cellar.
LOUISE: Feeling OK now, honey? (ro GRIGG)
GRIGG:
I think Il throw myself down somewhere. I'm beat.
LOUISE: The spare room' s clear, honey.
GRIGG:
Kill that bottle, Glent (as he goes off)
GIEN:
How did you do it?
LOUISE: Oh, I softened him up. Anyway, that's enough of trying
to save people. As fron tonight.
GLEN:
He didn't beat you?
LOUISE: What, him? I'd like to see him try. He made me swear
on a bible.
GLEN:
what?
LOUISE: That it wasn't youe Thank God he didn't make me
swear about Pal ermo, that's all.
GLENS
Where are the guestis?


LOUISE: Hostly asleep. I think that's what Lou means to do
too. Good night, we'll be meeting in a day from now.
GLEN:
Where?
LOUISE (going) Ask your boss. He phoned up Jeff and arranged it.
I don't know how he does it.
GLENE
Good night. I sat there for some time, stretched,
yawned, got up. Went to find the contents of number
49 (disappears for a moment), and began dressing.
ThenI walked into the big room. There were sleepers
everywhers. They had all been lovingly covered with
coats or blankets, like chil dren, mute and pale, seeming
to stare at me behind their closed eyelids. I saw
Myra, her head sl umped forward, twitching.
The Backs.
GLEN:
Outsade, I found a morning so serene that I stood
where I was between the gilt swing-doors and the long,
grimed, official cars, my hands in my pockets, just
looking at the sky. The wind had done its cleansing
job and there were only the last fine traces of cloud
high up. No one was about. An electric milk-trolley
throl bbed from a neart by street, a suburban sound that
made me want to laugh. I walked towards the Backs,
it being too early for a café to be open. The colleges
were still and closed, their windows reflecting the first
watery yellow of the sun. The touch of the chill air,
the sun that bore into everything like a diamond, the
silence I foi und when I reached the river were like
judgements on the night I'd had, but I couldn't tell
what they were. The birds vere awake on the river and
all at once three swans throbbed with a happy will
overhead, tracing the riverline precisely, gleaming in
the sun, their wing-beats eahoing on the water. I sat
down on a bench and looked across at King' S chapel, vast
and as always so fixed against the sky that it wasn't
ours any more, but past and fut ture. The river moving
slowly between the lawns reminded me of English summer
afternoons long ago. The Bridge of Sighs looked as if


it enclosed watchers from the past. But-- there
didn't seem any connecting links any more. Not with
those summer afternoons I could remember vididly, not
even with the scene that lay before me. It vas like
a painted scene. After the nightI'd just had it
didn't seem real. strange that Grigg's thoughts should
steal into my head now, like a threat, and viciously
true. We were marking time, yes, waiting. And
England, I was in England: but what England existed
now, even in this most English scene? It was like a
memory. Nature was like a memory: it had all been
broken underneath, from the swans to the bright lawns
stirring in the sunshine; in one moment it could all
collepse---perhaps was collapsing invisibly at this
moment. which made it all a pleasant memory at best.
As an ugly town was an unpleasant memory at best.
We were watching the careful fruits of past generations,
and the careful fruits of God: we were the first
spectators, because the key to its total destruction had
been found, Look at this soaring chapel, pointing up
far beyond us into the past and future. But what
future? We couldn't/secure about a future. So it
sealed us into ourselves. The future wasn't ours.
So there could be no past, either. We had no future
because we had no pover to form it. It was being decided
by other minds, for motives ve knew no thing about.
We had lost the power of choice. So we were like unwanted
guests in the universe. A gardener cycled along the lwn nekead
gravel path in front of me---
A gardener cycles past.
GLEN:
at least he looked like a gardener, and said a ringing--
GARDENER: Godd morning!
GLEN:
Good morningt And at once my thoughts were behind me:
I was lost again in the business of life, Just a ring
ing good morning could do it. It didn't take much to
pull the wool over our eyes. A fev windovs opened.
There was the sound of cars from King' s Parade, And
a church bell started, followed by others. This most
demanfing of all sounds reinforced the walls and lawn
and soaring stone, and insisted on past and future being
intact, and I gave in happily and willingly, and let the
false dream suffuse me. (Bells) Igot up, my hands in
my pockets, and strolled over the bridge again. I was
hungry.
de hear the bells of Cambridge.


Palermo's office.
GLEN:
That night had anothek strange effect. It happened
when I was walking across King's Cross station on my
way to_the office. Al1 of a sudden I felt as if I'd.
been implicated in sone thing---not a crime but some-
thing, which I mustn't talk about. And it wasn't
just one thing. In a formidable way I was prevented
from talking openly about anything, as if all my life
now lay under a veil of secrecy. And I began to feel
watched. Put more precisely, I began,to feel watch-
able. I felt not quite clear in my record. Some-
thing was on my record which I didn't know about.
I had to be careful, I mustn't speak, but exactly what
the forbidden subjects were I didn't know, so they could
well be everything. I was involved. Yet I'd done
nothing. I had been made an ally, but for what I didn't
know. The veil spread by the previous night lay over
all secrets, including the most terrible ones, which
were whether a machine of to tal destructionohad been
invented, and where it was, and who controlled the
button, and then who controlled those who controlled
the button, in a series of secrets, that reached down
finally to me, who had no importance at all, and who
tried to live as if there vere logic and plain facts still.
But how or why this was so I couldn't say: only that
the night's experiencé, showing me bulging hairy parts
and strong shining bosoms and hips fruitful of suggest-
ions and legs curling affectionately over others and
hot skin touching other skin with thrilling unconcern,
exposed wi th its very unsecrecy the deadly secrecy on
which our life was founded now. You know, after a night
like that, you come to the core and germ of the world.
I had touched its secrets which was that all modern
life was a kind of secret service, And I was involved.
The thought made me shudder. I felt pale and could
hardly walk. My cheeks drooped and I couldn't look
other people in the eye. I shuffled through to Palermo's
office. He was there, in a spotlessly white shirt
that made his hands look frail, his lips fastidiously
saft. He looked up slowly.
PALERMO: Thanks, by the way.


GLENS
What for?
BALERMO: Winning dad over. All-night session? She phoned me
just now. Asked for you too.
GLEN:
Why?
PALERMO: Anyway, thanks. You'll hold my hand tonight, eh?
GLEN:
I'm not going to any "parties. I've had enough of them.
PALERMO: Just a gathering at my club. Not a party. Call it
work. And I'1l need:you for something else, in an
hour from now.
GLENS
What?
PALERMO: Oh, a conference. I'm on to something good. Meanwhile
get some sleep. By the way, I opened an account for
you today. Put three hundred quid in.
GLEN:
what?
PALERMO: It's the bank we use. $5 Bank charges fall on us.
GLEN:
What three hupdred isf that, for God' S sake?
PALERMO: The advence I told you about.
GLEN:
But that was twenty-five.
PALERMO: We thought you were worth more.
GLENS
Who's we?
PALERMO: Chandler Williams and me, why, want me to take it
back?
GLEN:
No. Well, thank you very much.
PALBRMO: I'm under the weather too. Ticker. I'm saving
myself up for tonight. Great things. The universe
is going to move. In fact, if you don't mind, I'll
use your bed upstairs.
GLEN:
I helped him up from his desk. Then he was all right.
He walked upstairs very slovly---I felt he.didn't want
Muriel to see. He came down an hour later looking
fresh and spruce for the conference, and bustled me
into a taxi outside. It was an office behind the
Strand. Selsey Associates was written on the door.
I don't think I understood one word of what went on.
Tvo men were there, one called Selsey and the other
Percy Klydonhall. when the receptionist said that
Mr Selsey was engaged with Mr Klydonhall at the moment


Palermo made an amazed whew under his breath and looked
down at his suit, straightened his cuffs. This Klydon-
hall kept to the background all the time. He was one of
those men who might be any age, and would be all his life
Perhaps because of the readiness of his smilé, which
sent a sparkle all through his face. And, in fact, they
sometimes called him + Junior'. At that moment a huge,
beaming, red-faced fellow came out.
f Selsey* s office.
Sel seys Klydonhall, Palermo,
Gl en are present.
GLEN:
He bubbled with professional laughter, talked most of
the tima, went to an un tidy desk and then forayed out
again, rubbed his hands together anii ducked his head in
an odd way with a little hissing sound through his teeth,
SELSEY: : Hullo, old pal, still up to your dirty tricks?
PALERMO: Oh, I've brought my stooge. Glen, this is Leonard
Harcourt Sel: sey. Never trust a man who looks like
that.
SELSEY: Not in my game, is he?
PALERMO: God, I should hopennott
SELSEY: Oh, that's all right. Don't like other dogs---always
want to bite them. Professional jealousy. You know
Percy Klydonhall, I suppose?
PALERMO: How do you do.
KLYDONHALL: How do you do.
SELSEY: The point about Johnny Palermo, Percy, is he's an
amateur. And we need 'em still. You see, these
companies wi th their overheads big or small can't
bring people together in a simple act of fellowship.


And Johnny still can. It does depend on people in
the end, don't you agree, Junior?
KLYDONHALL: Oh, absolutely.
SELSEY: Now as you know, John, we're interested. And we mustn't
lose money.
PALERMO: You wontt.
SELSEY: We'd better not. Now if you like to take this thing on
your shoulders, OK. : But it has to be faster than any-
thing you've done before.
PALERMO: Tonight. I told you that.
SELSEY: All right, Percy?
KLYDONHALLE Bine,
SELSEY: And of course keep our names out of it until zero hour.
If you can launch us safely you'll make a packet. I
can promise you that.
PALERMO: You'd better.
KLYOONHALL: Shouldn't there be something written, just among
ourselves?
SELSEY: Absolutely diastrous, I should have thought. If John
and I. start rocking the boat, we'll be in the drink,
because we're in the same boat. Got me? We trust
each other, don't we, John?
PALERMO: We certainly do.
SELSEY: Now I suppose most of this depends on Charles. Natur-
ally, 2exeyAknowf his work. Matter of fact, Charles
and I were at school together. We never met---he was
in the Lower School. He was a crack shot on the range,
I seem to remember. Anyway, I just thought you ought
: to mkk meet Percy beforehand. We're terribly tied
up this afternoon, othervise we would have loved to cnew
: the fat a bit longer. By the way, I don't think your
professor's had a. very good deal from the press.
PALERHO: Oh, he'll get a better one.
SELSEY: I bet he will, At the club, then. Good bye.
PALERMO: Good bye.
SELSEY, and KLYDONHALL leave.


PALERMO: My God, I've got to the top now, boy. I've seen
him at the club, I've watched him wheel Muriel round
the dance floor-
GLENT
Who?
PALERMO: Klydonhall. But I didn't know he'd actually acknow-
ledge my existence one day. Old Selsey worked that.
I knew he would, once he could see something juicy.
I've been watching that pot-bellied old rat for years,
trying to squeeze a really good contact out of him,
and I've got it now, by God. You know, Glen, a woman
al ways lets something drop when she isn't thinking.
And Lou just dropped a name. Like a penny. 'Charles',
she said. Like that.
GLEN:
Charles who?
PALERMO: Dornelling. The one whose flat you were at all night.
GLEN: :
Oht
PALERMO: And it clicked, to join the two together. Now that
Klydonhall spends his time running between Wall Street
and Threadnebdle Street, some of the jobbers call him
Ariel. There isn't a pie on either side of the
Atlantic he hasn't got a finger in. I'm in the money.
I'll make everybody green with envy. It'll eat through
them, corroding their guts.
GLEN: : But what's it about, exactly?
PALERMO: He's even a lord.
GLENE : Who is?.
PALERMO: Klydonhall. - But he doesn't use the title any more
since he became American.
GLEN:
What, he's an American?
PALERMO: Any objections?
GLEN:
No but---everybody seems to be.
PALERMO: You'd better not harbour dark thoughts about our Perey,
you know. Best not to gnaw the hand that feed S you.
Take a little bite now and then, but never gnaw steadily.
GLEN:
And what's Muriel got to do with him?
PALERMO: Uccht You know these girlse They get ideas after a
couple of dances. Anyway, be there by seven sharp.


GLEN:
Where?
PALERMO: The 1810. Get the address from Muriel. And listen,
Glen. From now on we only sing paeons of praise and
hymns of love for Porfessor Grigg, get it? If you
know anything bad about him, keep it darki In fact,
keep your mouth shut al together.
PALERMO leaves.
GLEN:
It was a club for women as well, like most of its kind
in Mayfairs fitted' carpets, soft wall-lights, plushy
chairs. A commissionaire stood outside, not'a beefy
one; his uniform and height were modest. The nod he
gave you established intimacy. It was a club for deals.
The 1810 Club,
PALERMO, LEONARD HARCOURT SELSEY
and JACK RYAN are there. Music.
GLEN:
Dancing went on in another room. Palermo and the
vast, hissing Selsey were already there, also some-
body called Jack who unlike everyone else. was dressed
in a sports jacket wi th a casual shirt, a sharp, bright,
attentive man who switched his head quickly from one
side to the other while he followed a conversation.
He nodded to me pleasantly and I had an immediate
desire to go over and sit by him and unload everything
on my mind, God knows why. And I wanted to drink.
Well, it was easy. One ghisky followed another quickly. /w
SELSEY: Old jobber Carter-Staines grumbling the other day, no
bloody crises, have to engineer .one, he said. If only
the PM'd be caught in a tiolet soliciting, we could vork
a one-day crisis and have the bloody prices down, but
all the sex perverts in the cabinet are in hiding.
RYAN:
You're telling me.


SELSEY: I could have made a nice packet over that little bit
of embarrassment last year, I had it all over the morn-
ing papers if you remember, fascinating' game stock-
jobbing, for those çonfirmed in the paths of evil.
RYANE
Well, I'm popping over to the office. See you in a.
jiffy.
PALERMO: OK, you rascal.
RYAN leaves. He returns
briefly.
RYAN:
I think these are friends of yo urs, aren't they?
PALERMO jumps up, and GRIGG and
LOUISE enter. RYAN disappears
again.
GRIGG:
So there you are. i
PALERMO: Come and meet Leonard' Selsey. Leonard, these are the
great people I've been talking about.
GRIGG:
How are you, Mr Selsey?
SELSEY: Delighted. Do come and sit down.
A waiter takes LOUISE' s fur wrap.
MURIEL comes in, at first unseen.
PALERMO: Wai ter! Aren't you. both whisky drinkers?
GRIGG:
I'm afraid s0.
BALERMOS Muriel, darling! Come and sit'do wn. Professor and
Mrs Grigg, this is Muriel, from my office.
WAIRER returns.
PALERMO: Better bring a bottle, and soda for those who want: it.
WAITER: Right.
He leaves again.
LOUISE: I'm glad you took it, honey.
GLEN:
Took what?
LOUISE: The cheque.
GLENS
what cheque?


LOUISE: Didn't he put it in your bank today? Three hundred
pounds?
GLEN:
He said it was for---!
LOUISE: Anyway, I'm mighty relieved. Sp is Jeff.
GLEN:
why should he bef
LOUISE: You'll see. Used any of it yet?
GLEN:
Yes.
Fine, then it's too late to be proud.
GRIGG:
Listen, I'd just as soon discuss that little project
before Charles blows in, just to get a brief, if you
get me.
SELSEY: I absolutely agree.f
t RYAN enters again and goes over
- to GLEN,
RYAN:
I've got you a drink, * old chap, like to come and,join
GLEN:
Oh. Thanks.
They go to another table.
RYAN:
You*re Johnny 8 new acquisition.
GLEN:
That' S right.
RYAN:
Very old friend of mine, Johnny. Matter of fact,
Iwas,with him last night, right at this table. You
weren't around. He said you were asleep or something.
GLEN:
No, I was at a party.
RYAN:
Let me get you another one.
(Mo tions wait ter over)
GLEN:
Thanks. Well, no, I was at a party, as a matter of
fact.
RYAN:
GLEN:
In Cambridge.
RXXN:
Friends of yours? I suppose you*ve a lot of old
acquaintances to: see, coI ming back to Engl and-
GLEN:
The Griggs, over there--the couple.


RYANE
Oh, yes, they've taken Charlie Dornelling' S place in
Capbridge, haven*t they?
ELEN:
That's right.
RYAN:
Best defence brain this country' s got, outside the
government. Never will go. - for parliament, keeps his
influence with both parties that way. So, was it a
nice party? I imagine so.
GLEN:
It went on all night.
RYAN:
What could be nicer than that?
WAITER brings their whiskies.
GLEN:
Cheers. God, I'm thirsty tonight. Usually I put
soda in but--
RYAN:
Down the hatch. Soda corrupts a good whisky. I
imagine old Grigg knows how to give a good party.
GLEN:
Well, he shoots his mouth off a bit, old Jeff. You
know what he's over here for, I suppospp
RYAN:
Some lecture tour, isn't it?
GLEN:
That's right. He said Europeans had got expendable
written all over their faces, and they didn't know the
difference between fifteen megatons anid a lighted
matoh. Isaid they would if one went off.
RYAN:
You're telling me.
GLEN:
He's a nice chap, really. There was some General or
other there, anyway Jeff said he was a crumb, because
he rides a horse.,
RYANS
That wouldn't be General Heeley, would it?
GLEN:
Thatis right. He called him a chocolate soidier.
RYAN:
Go ont
GLEN:
But ne went early.
RYAN:
Who did?
GLEN:
The General. It would have got a bit hot for him,
I think.
RYAN:
How do you meen?
GLEN:
Well, they've cer tainly got some central heating in
that flat. Then everybody started. taking their clothes


off.
RYAN:
Not
GLEN:
Yes, as true as I'm sitting here. You started with
your shoés and he gave everybody a little number tag,
and this was the number of your sack where you put
your clothes. Yes, we had a ripe old night! - Well,
a sort of dance started up, the idea being that you
couldn't join in without being starko. He and his
wife started off, and I can't remember who went up
then, I think it was that English chap-
RYAN:
The defence brain?
GLEN:
That's right. But I tell you something, it's very
funny, it didn't strike you as lascivious or anything,
I mean you really go t to know people, you saw them as
they weree
RYANS
I bet you did.
GLEN:
Yes, it was an experience worth having. But when he
put a sack on my head and tied me to my
chair--
RYAN:
GLEN:
You see, his wife Lou had the idea that I was al ways
running to the press and, you know, spilling the beans
about dheir life, it's completely ridiculous as I've
never spoken to an editor in my jife and apart from
Palermo I've never met anybpdy even mildly connected
with the press, but anyway she was convinced I was out
for a story and she was trying nart to
to me
persuadeynot
it, by sitting on my lap---
RYAN:
Sitting on your lap?
GLENE
It's a scream, isn't it? Skextixxt Anyway, kuxakarks
there she was sitting on myjgnee---
/lup
RYAN:
Not naked?
GLEN:
Well, not quite, but there wasn't much in it. Anyway,
there she was, everything quite harmless and above board,
when who should come in but the old man himself and of
course he jumps to the inevitable concl usion.
RYAN:
Of course.
GLENS
Ha starts calling me a crumb like General Heeley and all
of a sudden I find myself in a sack, tied to the chair
I'm sitting in.


RYANE
Good God!
GLEN:
Listen, you haven't heard anything yet. When. she lets
me out again she tells me he took her over to the family
bible---they're Catholics--
RYAN:
Oh, they're Catholics.
GLEN:
--and makes her swear that she's never had anything
untoward with me, which she does immediately. And of
courss knowing she wouldn't risk hellfire just for me,
he believes her. Then they're both as nice as pie and
he brings out a bottle of the finest Mouton Rothschild
I've ever tasted, he must have had it sitting in room
temperature waiting for a thirst just like mino--
anyway, it all ended quietly, they're awfully nice people
really.
RYAN:
Well, that sounds quite an adventure.
GLEN:
It certainly was. :
RYAN: (rising). Don't get up. I've got to> rush. It's certainly
a fantastic story. Don't worry (with a wink) I'll be
in touch with you about it.
GLEN:
In touch? why?
Bhb RYAN has gone,
PALERMO comes over and sits by
GLEN.
PALERMO: Listen, how many times do you sell your soul, oxactly? /
Aren't you afraid of going into liquidation?
GLEN:
What do you mean?
PALERMO: Come on, spill it.' What was the big laugh, with Jack
Ryan just now
GLEN:
Jack Ryan?
PALERMO: Let me tell you one thing, stories go through me, and
I'll see you don't get a direct fee.
GLEN:
Was that the editor, Jack Ryan, you mean?
PALERMO: Well, who the hell else? You make me sick. I'd hare
kicked you out this morning if you hadn't worked that
Cambridge party SO well.
GLEN:
Worked it?


PALERMO: And for God's sake stop repeating everything I say.
GLENS
Anyway, that three hundred wasn't yours to givel
PALERMO: I'l1 find out whi's behind you, boy, don't worry.
(Leaves him)
GRIGGE
I like to hear your boss chew your nuts off, Glen.
When did you leave last night, exactly?
GLEN:
Just about dawn.
GRIGG:
You went on the river with Charles and the rest, on
that crazy punting party?
GLEN:
No. Don't you remember me leaving?
GRIGG:
Well, I had above fifty guests to think of. All I
remember is you mauling Lou:
GLEN:
I didn't touch her.
GRIGG:
More fool you.
LOUISE: Is there a place to powder -no ses, honey?
MURIEL: I'11 show you.
They go out.
GRIGG:
That's a nice girl of yo urs, Johnny. Been telling me
her life story. Didn't I hear she was Percy Klydonhall's
girl of the year?
PALERMO: She could only have told you that herself.
GRIGG:
Do you really get that for a syndicated article, Glen?
GLEN:
Get what?
GRIGG:
What was it--a thousand bucks I paid out this morning---?
PALERMO: To my mind, no man should be paid for libels.
GRIGG:
Oh, come now, mighty public outrages get to the ear of te
world through people like Gl en. Eh, Glen?
GLEN:
Why don't you tell him who put those articles in the
paper?
PALERMO: I can see our guests.
He goes out.


GRIGG:
Sorry I had to take a slam at you. Just couldn't let
the chance slip. Notice the way Louise bridled?
PALERMO returns with PERCY
KLIDONHALL and CHARLES DORNELLING.
GRIGG:
Well, Charles, boy, how far d'you get this moming?
DORNELLING: We grounded at Caiuat
PALERMO: Now, Jeff, this is Mr Klydonhall.
GRIGG:
Pleased to meet you, very pleased.
KLYDONHALL: How do you do?
SELSEY: Shets gone to the loo, Percy.
KLYDONHALL strolls off. The
whisky bottle is brought into
play.
PALERMO: Help yourself, Glen.
MURIEL returns and sits at GLEN'S
side.
MURIEL: You shouldn*t drink so much. I've been watching you.
SELSEY: The peer wanted a dance. He came in just this minute.
MURIEL: I know, I gave him the slip.
SELSEY: Silly girls, don't know which side their bread* S
buttered, eh, Johnny?
MURIIL: Johnny said to me once, there are millions of suicides,
he said--successful ones, you meet them every 'day,
they did it so well there was no body, not a mark to
be seen, and they're still walking round. I reckon
I'm one of those.
SELSEY: Oh, come, come no W.
PALERMO: Did I say that? No wonder I get to the top.
SELSEY: Well, Jeff, you've got the firest exponent of Massacre
2 sitting at your side (indicating CHARLES DORNELLINGG.
GRIGG:
Yes, Harcourt, there* s a hell of a lot in it, I. .know,
but you don't mind me saying it's redundant.
SELSEY: I dot I do: No, Jeff, I can prove it works, and
Charles can give you book, bell and candle on it.


GRIGG:
Well, whatever Charles says is gospel for me as you
probabCly know, but in this case I'E repeating what
I've heard in another place on the highest authority.
DO RNELLING: What you've heard, Jeff, was about Massacre 1, unless si
I'm mistaken. In fact, the Under Secretary said to me
about a week ago---I mean, this is off the cuff and the
record, incident_ally---that Massacre 1 as a weapon
stank but it had béen damned effective in getting us
no ticed in the Pentagon! I'm not sure he had the ear
of the minister there but I've an idea they chewed it
over a minute before I came into the roome
GRIGG:
OK, I know your heart's in this, Charles, and I don't
need to tell you I'm looking at it seriously all the
time. But there's one thing you can't gainsay and
that's that Number :2 is a tarty version of Number 1,
and that's why it don't stand a ghost.
DORNELLING: Well, Jeff, I don't want to quarrel with you but that' s
just what it isn*t. And Ill prove it to you with the
blueprints tomorrow morning if you givé me some of your
time.
GRIGG:
I'll give you all of my time you want. What about our
friend Percy Klydonhall- where is he?---could he give me
some of his, time, to get the whole thing tied up, purse
strings and. all?
SELSEY: I can talk for Percy. I've been doing it for over ten
years, anyway.
GRIGG:
Don't tell me he knew my name.
SELSEY: Well, not only that, but he's the one man in England -
who's ever tried to get you taken seriously.
GRIGG:
OK, what time tomorrov?
SELSEY: Ten o'clock at his office.
GRIGGE
Let me know where that is (notebook in hand)?
SEL SEY: We'll send a car round to your hotel.
GRIGG:
OK, the Northumberland. May be we could breakfast
together, first, Charles.
DORNILLING: All right.
GRIGG:
Just so this young Harcourt here don't trip us up on
facts when we get there.
LOUISE returns.


GRIGG (pushing the whisky bottle across) Help the girls, will
you, Glen?
KLYDONHALL strolls back.
KLYDONHALL: This looks festive. Not dancing tonight, Mouse?
MURIEL: OK.
They go out together.
GRIGG:
Chin-chin, milord:
DORNI ELLING:
: take-off, yes, but not the actual conventional
energy-displacement, I mean, yo u've got the whole thing
very nicely wrapped up in that, what the devil was that
hunch of Joe High's called, it was beyond the trial
stage in six months and we never thought it'd get up off
the ground, clever blighter that, though true enough what
he has in elegance' he loses in shere fussiness, I mean
take his fuse arrangements.
PALERMO: It's no good without the press on your side, you can have
all the techincal khow-how on the earth.
GRIGGE
Oh, boy, I'm glad you said that, Johnny. I'm tired of
opening an English paper and getting belly ache.
SELSEY: Well, of course, you know where Jack Ryan's sympathies
lie. Actually, I've al ways thought that commie business
a bit of an affectation, myself. Couldn't be a nicer
chap, in fact.
PALERMO: Jack follows public demand, he's got more noses than
fingers.
GRIGG:
You can't mean there' S a public demand for my misery?
PALERMO: The morning editions'll be making you dance for joy
soon,
GRIGG:
I cen't waiti Which reminds me (draws GLEN over to
a separate table)
PALERMO: Be thugh, Glent
GRIGG:
Oh, come on nowl
GLEN:
I can hardly stand up.
GRIGG:
Well, sit down.
PALERMO: Dances Mrs Grigg?


The others wander off. GLEN
and GRIGG are alone.
GRIGG:
Your boss is jumpy like a child tonight. Wouldn't
you be, if you was getting th Percy Klydonhali
account? (A wink) Just supposing you was interested
pn money, of course? You know, it seems to me I'm
damned slow, Because I need a guy to look after my
personal publicity too, Now wouldn't/have done better /1
to walk straight into your office on arrival and say,
here' S fifty thousand bucks on account, I want a sweet
press? Anyway I didn't. So I took a beating on the
head. So waht say, Glen? How much?
GLEN:
How much what?
GRIGG:
You're not even gentle, are you? Listen, why don't
you come off your pedestal and name a price?, Here,
(mo tioning a waitbr) have another drink, to help you
do something really dirty.
GLEN:
As a matter of fact, I don't know what you want me to do.
GRIGG:
I want a story a week, and I don't mean the provincial
press either:
GLEN:
What kind of story?
GRIGG:
Well, hell, not the kind you usually let offt So what
do you say, Glen? I me an, the price. You'll do the
work all right. Johnny says so.
GLEN:
He did?
GRIGG:
Every story goes through your own office, Glen. Mind
that. Nothing direct with the papers. (Waiter brings
over pottle and glasses) Thanks, Fred,
GLEN:
Well, I'd like the usual newspeper rates.
GRIGG:
OK, Glen. You a member of the National Union?
GLEN:
Well, no.
GRIGG:
Boy, are you a rat.
GLEN:
I'm not really a journalist.
GRIGG:
You just take their fees, eh? OK, Glen: your first
assignment---cive me a line on your boss. Drink up.
He' s after my wife, right? Come on, I know you two
slimy bastards got me down here to bribe me with a
Percy Klydonhall deal and drop me into bed with this
whore Muriel for the night, I know you used my own
friend Charlie Dornelling for the purpose, the closest


friend I ever hed!
GLEN:
Here, what's the matter? It's not true, you know,
GRIGGE Oh, I don't mind the truth. I'll sleep with that kid,
OK. If you're walking into hell and there's no other
direction, well, keep walking, that's my philosophy.
To Reaven?
GLEN:
You could turn round and walk the other way, couldn't
Take your wife back to
home now?
your)
Cambridge, go
GRIGG: But I'd still be in hell. Thinking what a hell of a
time I could be having with that girl, and being bored
to hell by Loù. You've got to have a technique, that's
all. Like playing-the war-game. You've got to know
when to stage an attack by an angry mob on a foreign
embassy, rouse up artificial indignation, when to worry
the enemy in a way that seems legitimate, when to run a
bombing attack on one of your oun ships or depots and
then
it was the
say
other side, so public.ophion gets
more scared of them.than sceptical of you. There are all
sorts of ways of making war without re sort to the full-
scale thing, Glen, and it's the same in private llfe.
I can go a hell of a way with this boss of yours, in
bribes and threats, before we're outright enemies.
I've got to have a technique. And Lou's one of them.
GLEN:
Your wife?
GRIGG: Sure. She's free, she's got her eyes all over his body,
don't think I cantt see that. So I use her. *nxth
She belongs to the technique of defence. And this one-
MURIEL comes in.
MURIEL: Like a dance, honey?
GRIGG (getting up) ---belongs on the offensive side. You'll get
to understand me soon, Glen. In fact, you may become one
og my.best disciples.yet.
He goes out with MURIEL.
GLEN:
Well, he could have been right. I was feeling more and
more part of the Grigg family: No thing like getting
money on false pretences for areating a sense of intimacy
with the provider. I wasn' t ashamed. I had ceased to
exist. We offer our skullss delicious sinews and nerves
to the worms, who give us no receipt for what they take.
And I had arrived at that state of nullity. They were
all I had to give. I owed everything. Nothing could
be a truer state than that: and the feeling of lightness,
of having abandoned everything, was magnificent. The
bump of the band was like the bump of tedium itself.
Yes, I'd sold myself. Completely. At not a bad price.
Chandler-villiams with his honest voice had told me the


truth. We are the waifs of time, he should have told
me that; we watch and try to pray, we are in suspense,
waiting for an adventure to end. By the time I got back
to Maidenhead Lane the dawn had come through. Just as
I turned the corner I sav Palermo with Louise Grigg on
his arm wall king the other way. Then when I walked up
the stairs to my room I could smell her scent on the air.
The attic room.
GLEN:
I was about to slump down on my bed when I saw it
had been slept in--made love in. And he hadn't
troubled to make it again. I pulled the bl ankets
over me, just as they were. I dreamed of a copper
sun, the vay it used to come up in the old Italy, as
sure as birth every morning: I suppose because I'd
left the light one
He is asleep. We hear steps
outside. MURIEL enters.
Before waking him she inspects
a notebook of his, lying by the
bed.
GLEN (waking) Hullo.
MURIEL: Sorry.
GLEN:
what's the time?
MURI EL: Turned four. I didn't like Palermo's flat any more.
GLEN:
Why were you there?
MURI EL: I live there.
GLENS
You live with Palermo?
MURIEL: Yes.
GLEN:
Been with Grigg?


MURIEL: Yes. All I did was cry, so he vent.
GLEN:
Have you lived with Palermo long?
MURIEL: Well, I had to give up my digs. I used to type for
him then. I was no virgin but I had a quiet life.
Money started coming my way, I mean after I moved in
with him, and then the typing I did was a sort of
cover, for me as well. Then I did less and less
typing. Igt money. Ten or twenty at first. Then
one day fifty. I. didn't have to think of tax rebate
or insurance or picking my wages up once a veek. I
was on air. I didn't see my mother any more. The
first few cheques were from Percy. They used to come
through Palermo. That made it easier to take them.
GLEN:
Yes.
MURIEL: Police keep coming.
GLEN:
Police?
MURI ELt I heard of a girl framed up once, she got in with the
wrong people, she hanged herself.
GLEN:
Don't be silly!
MURIEL: They ask me all sorts of questions, Glen---they came
just now. I think they're. police. Well, I can't
help knowing what they say.
GLEN:
Who?
MURIEL: Al1 this Massacre stuff--well, I didn't really hear
it--you're all in it together!
GLEN:
Sssh!
MURIEL: I don't vant to understand. They ask about Percy,
what he says. They think I'm after something. And
they don't trust Palermo. That's vhy he's never at
home. He took me to an embassy reception once, they
ask about that, well I didn't want to know anything wrong.
Percy knows I went with Grigg. He didn't seem to mind.
He smiled at Grigg, you knov the way men have.
GLEN:
You're too young for this game.
MURISL: No. It's that I'm a fool. I thought Percy was going
to marry me. I'm frightened, Gleni
GLEN:
Sssh:
MURIEL: I didn't do it for money. Not the actual notes.
But I suppose money's behind it. I liked the clubs
and sometimes Percy took me to the Riviera, I liked


the dresses, and coming down to breakfast in the
sunshine.
GLEN:
Get some sleep. You can have my bed.
MURIEL: I saw your little book. I - nearly screamed when I saw
that vord missile. I camé over here for help: I
thought you were the only person in the world who could
help me, because wé sort of work together. And you're
just the same as them. But it doesn't matter, I don't
care any more. When you know everything* s up therets
nothing to ' do, youijust wait.
GLEN:
But that's a diary I keep about the weather. I've been
losing money on my wine, I thought these rockets to the
moon had some thing rto do with the funny weather, it's
all changed out there in the last few years. Look,
Muriel- -'May, dangerous storms on coast, wind ne arly
hurricane force, June, people killed in fields near by
wi th scythes in their hands, 15th a colossal cloudburst
in the next town, incessant flickering lightning that
illuminates the countryside like strange moonlight,
26th rain in avalanches, 28th hail suddenly ruins all
my wine facing east, nearly half my yield, all over in
three minutes...'
She is asleep. He covers her
with blankets. He sleeps too,
and their heads are side by side.
The lights fade and rise slowly
again. There are heavy foot-
steps on the stairs. PALERMO
enters.
PALERMO: Well, vell, this is cosy.
GLEN (waking) She came about four, talked about the police.
PALERMO: And somehow slipped between your sheets. She looks
happy, Glen. Congratilations.
MURIEL wakes too.
PALERMO: You ran ouy on Grigg last night, honey.
MURIEL: He drank himself asleep in your flat.
PALERMO: That's where I fo und him.
MURI EL: Nobody to believe in, nothing to happen. You know,
Percy makes you feel full of hope just before he drops
you in the dirt. He bounces, like last night. whereas
I don't to unce. I go down with a thump.


PALERMO: Into Glen's bed.
MURIEL: He had me hoping last night. Asked me for a dance,
*Not dancing tonight, Mouse?' I'll never understand
men. They do such funny things. For monsy---but not
even for that. Idontt khow why you can't be yourselves.
PALERMO: Still, Johnny Palerno loves you.
MURIEL: Better be hated by'any man than liked by him, My mother
said that about somebody and it fits to you. Percy
took me on the Riviera for a week and made me think I
was a human being. But you have to start at the bottom
rung and work your sway up to be a human being, and I
didn't, I made a big jump because I despised the people
round me.
PALERMO: Lay off the drink at night and then you won't feel like
this in the morning.
MURIEL: You can talk. Whën you get tho se patches round yoi ur
eyes, it's bad. fil grab a coffee.
She goes.
PALERMO: Well, Glen, she gave me the whole works last night.
I've never had anything like it. She pulled out all
the stops. I thought she was going to have my blood.
GLEN:
On my bed, too.
PALERMO: Where else do you think I'm going--home, with Grigg
sitting there? Anyway, I pay the rent heré, so don't
lay yourself on, s0/big. Besides (hands him a letter). too
I might not cover your mistakes like I do. Go on, read
GLEN:
'I laughed like a drain over yoi ur story, Glen, and I'm
: only sorry we couldn't use more of it, but I'm sure you
understand we have to watch the libel laws. Keep in
touch, Yours, Jack Ryan.'
PALERMO: And a cheque for fifty quid enclosed. Iould have got
you double. That's why he sent it tox you direct.
GLEN:
How the hell did I know it was Jack Ryan? Anyway,
this means he won*t print the story after all, doesn't
PALERMO: He's already printed it on the middle page. As far as
I remember the headline goes I Naked Truth at Professor s
Party'. It's all there, to be read between the lines.
And you're supposed to be the professor* S press man,
Glen.


GLEN:
Has he seen it?
PALERMO: I shoved it to him just now. And a good thing I did.
Because I fo und out what poor rates he's giving you.
That won' t do for us, Glen. I made him double it.
I said that article was your answer to his price. And
he said, 'OK, hets_got an expensive soul, but I'll buy
GLEN:
He thinks he'll buy it.
PALERMO: A soul's like love, Glen. All of a sudden it's gone,
and there's iron in' its place. If he starts ge tting
rough tonight tell him not to employ a dog to bark and
then do the barking. himself. It al ways gets them.
GLENS
What do you mean, tonight?
PALERMO:' You're seeing him at the 1810 for a work-session.
GLEN:
Oh, not
PALERMO: What do you mean, oh, no, het s paying you!
GLEN:
I cantt stand any more talk about technique!
PALERMO: Ten o*clock sharp, in the ldunge. I'm off to see my
quack. My heart' s having jumping fits. You can stay
in bed all day today, as you'll be vorking tonight.
He goese
GLEN:
I lay thinking over what Muriel had said. She didn't
come back to the office that day. She was working nights,
too. In fact, all threeof us were. But then I felt *
a quiet rebellion. It was a decision of 'action, too.
What power I had I was going to use. I meant to upset
Griggls plans al together. I was going to sign something,
but not with the devil. I was a victim like Muriel
perhaps, but I wasn't going to be a whore at leasti
I dressed quCickly and drank a cup of tea at the Strand
Palace Hotel. Then I slipped ro und to Jack Ryan's
office. Grigg was going to get his press report all
right, but not the one he planned. It was going to be
the truth. It was dark and a dull rain had started.
Ryan was there, and my name worked like a charm.


JACK RYAN's office.
RYAN:
Well, Glen, spit it out. quick and I might have room
for it.
GLEN:
I haven't had timerto get a real story together
RYAN:
Who about?
GLEN: : Grigg. The thing is he' s trying to buy me up as a
sort oif personal publicity man.
RYAN:
Lucky gou.
GLEN:
He says you have to have a technique for everything
and that as hell's going to break lose you have to. have
one for that too. He says there' S a technique for all
the stages that lead up to full-scale war---
RYANS
So there is.
GLENS
And that means breaking windows in embassies and dropping
bombs on your own. people if necessary, and he said these
times are hell and the future lies wi th men who can wal k
through hell wi thout finching.
RYAN:
I think that's in his book, yes.
GLENE
And--you got that bit about the chocolate soldier,
didn't. you?
RYAN:
Eh? That was about General Heeley, wasn't it?
GLEN:
Yes, well--I mean, you got it.
RYAN:
I even printed it.
GLEN:
Oh, I-haven't seen that yet.
RYAN:
It's a masterpiece. But go on.


GLEN:
Well, he and Percy Klydonhall are sort of going in
together. It seems to be about some project, and
Charlea Dornelling comes into it too. And they call
it Massacre 2.
RYAN:
Which is what?
GLEN:
Well, Grigg says it's a tarty version of Massacre 1,
and Dornelling says it isn't. He says Massacre 1
got them not ticed at the Pentagon.
RYAN:
Who's they?
GLEN:
Well, I suppose the sort of people who work round him.
RYAN:
And suppose you tell me what Massacre 1 is?
GLEN:
Well, I imagine the same sort of thing as Massacre
RYANS
But you didn't explain that.
GLEN:
Well, I mean the police have been round to Muriel, and
they keep on asking questions, and they wanted her to
say what she heard, and she says she can't help over-
hearing, so it must be SoI mething secretive, mustn-t
RYAN:
But what does Massacre do? I mean, vegetable or mineral?
GLEN:
Well, it takes off.
RYAN:
Then it must be a missile.
GLENS
That's it.
RYAN:
And to interest both Klydonhall- who has vast oil
interests--and Professor Grigg- who has nuclear one --
it must somehow combine the two.
GLEN:
That's what I meane
RYAN:
And something that combines the two is not only a missile
but a weapon.
GLEN:
That's, right.
RYAN:
Well, let me tell you something. One talks about weapons
when they're finished, not before. Before, they're
considered a secret, a red-hot one, such as will burn the
fingers of ordinary men.
GLEN:
Well, why don't they' keep quiet about it, then?
RYAH:
Exactly. But perhaps only one' of them is indiscreet,
Could it be you?


GLEN:
Well-
RYAN:
My girl'll see you out.
The 1810 Club.
GLENE
I left the room giddy and ran down the stairs of
five storeys, seeing nothing. I was so frightened
by my fiasco that I rushed back to my room and packed,
just in case I had'to make a quick getaway. But who
was going to throw me out? Still, I packed even my
tiolet things. Then I looked at my watch. It was
time to sde Grigg at the 1810 club. And I discovered
I wanted to go. I was even looking forward to it,
perhaps because he was a lonely man like me. I found
a taxi and was there in a few minutes. The wide foyer
lay in the same hush as the evening before, but this time
it was a consolation to me: every room was curtained
and carpeted as if to ward off not only sounds but
human desires as well. There were women coming from
the powder room, talking quietly before going up the
double staircase that had once been stal tely andd was now
over-gilded and tired, because it oniy had nights to
remember, not daylight any more. There wasn't an inch
of wall uncovered by damask or satin, or perhaps ita
was a good imitation. And the band thumped as before.
The same tunes. And there was Grigg, wai iting for me,
a fresh bottle of whisky and two glasses ready.
GRIGG (pouring him a drink) I read your article, by the way.
I reckon you've got more technique than ten of me.
What makes you so heartless? It said just about
everything there was to know on that party, without a
single direct phrase. I thought the last ssentence was
honey---'At the end, close on dawn, I felt like a man
with his head in a sacks One thing I can say, the
professor has a cellar as well stocked as a nuclear
dump. I tasted his Kouton Ro thschild, so I know.'
OK, Glen---you win, for now.
Listen---as a matter of fact, I didn't know that was
Jack Ryan-


GRIGG:
It's. the future I'd worry about. Because if any more
of these freelance jobs appear you get the boot from
Johnny Palermo. He told me that himself. And/extract- /Re
ed double the price I offered you last night. So the
first ronnd is yo urs, Glen. But settle down from now
on. I've bought you, sex organs and all.
GLEN:
Well, they say in the trade don't employ a dog to bark
and then do the barking yourself.
GRIGG:
That* s(fine saying, Glen, but understandably I'm
rattled when I see'that stuff through the steam of my
coffee every damned morning. It'll have to stop---for
my nervous system alone. I'm beat, Glen, try and see
that. She came back this morning knocked to hell.
She was reeling. And she gave me a chronicle of the
whole thing. There's nothing she didn't do to that
man, Glent But the way I look at it is this, I'm a
phenomena at present struggling between jealousy over
my wife and the urge on my si de to have a damned good
time while the going' S good.. I'm juggling with the
possibilities. And I'm working at the problem in
order to survive. Now I'm talking to you about this,
Glen, because I've.devoted a whole lecture to the subject
of the survivor.
GLEN falls asleep.
GRIGG:
In a way that's a sort of visionary concept, for the
future. I mean, what the hell have we got at present
that we'd like to keep? Dann little, so one day some-
body's going to blow it all- Heil, you've fallen
sleep!
GLEN:
I'm sorry!
GRIGG:
This is a work-session, Glen. - Well, to come to the
real point, I was with Percy Klydonhall today à and they
were two of
the finest hours in my life. We were up
in space! We populated the universe with new thoughtsl
We put a human colony on every star within reach of the
earth, we had stations up there for the study of space
philosophy, for stellar agricul ture, a communications
syatem that'd make a ring round the earth so as when you
look up at the sky. you don't look yo ur own death in the
face like you do now, you see lifel
GLEN falls asleep again.
GRIGG:
You look into a bright lighted arena bustling with
humen affairs, let' S compare it to a vast forum---
there'll be watchers in the sky night and day. Now
what are the deliberations of a house of deputies or
parliament or congress compared to that? They won't
be necessary any moret We'll have the freedom of the


skiest Laboratories, lecture rooms, TV units,
research groups---floating about in space! We're
going to make security on this earth, have it watched
every minute of the dayt Am I making myself clear,
Gl--? Well, look-it, hets out again! Glen, Glent
Are you in my employ or not?
GLENE
No, I was listening---I mean, won't that interfere wi th
the weather---Fye peen Cosing-2
GRIGG:
Terrrestrial weather, you mean?
GLEN:
Well, that's the weather wetve t.
GRIGG:
But not the weather everybody in the universe has: -
don't let's be provincial about that. Yes, it could
be. It seems that just about anything you do two
hundred miles up, even a mild fart, has some efféct on
the earth sooner or later. But if you mess up terrestrial
weather, it means you've go t the power to make it good
too!
GLEN:
Yes, but I mean what's thè point of getting to the moon?
GRIGG:
The moon? I ought to charge/tuition feest You belleve lyon
that crap about pin-up boys dancing about in space?
That's a cover-story, Glen--for people like you. It's
moonshine, to get the earth under surveillance for all
time, that's the object, just as medicine got the body
under surveillance.for all time!
GLENS
But who are they ging to surveyi?
GRIGG:
The enemy of courset They're fitted up with nuclear
tools, that''s what the moonshine department didn't tell
you! Did you think we were back in the days of Faraday
and the Royal Society?, No, + Glen, life' s a fight twe
have to fight to work, to think, like we had to fight
to get our language on top of every other!. In a way,
Glen, wetre finished with the earth. It's too small
for use Instead -of talking about ideals and absolutes
and God knows what else, we'll be able to sit up there
and see it.all, the whole damned universe laid out
before ust It's a kind of Greek world all over again,
Glen---but instead of Socrates sitting round chewing the
fat with his boyfriends, he's doing some thingt We'll
have stellar research groups working and analysing and
throwing out their ideas in a kind of glorious. mess that
brings up an absolute sinch of an idea every now and
then! That's sciencet Well, you look a little more
wide-awakef Glen, but I reckon that's enough for today. nou
Glen-- -mind if I talk about my personal affairs? I
mean, you have to know the whole man.


GLEN:
Go ahead:
GRIGG:
As I say, she's eating him up, Glen. When she comes
in at dawn she can go on where she left off, too. It
seems she don't even need sleep. But I'll tell you
something, Glen: when I see how this poor damned wife
of mine can't wait to get back to that charnel house
they've made between them, I say to myself, think of
your ideas, don't give int You know, Glen, I follow
her round to. that office of you urs, I've even been up
there just after they've gone and smelled her smell on
the air. There's no key, you can walk in.
GLENE
Yes, I know.
GRIGG:
That's not your bedroom in my eyes, Glen, it's a garden
of delights, except I don't get a damned one of t emt
I told her this norning when she got back, you're a
monster, Lou, I said, and she said to :me, isn't that the
way you want me? 'And it's true, I-don't want any of
this humbug and nice living and all that crap, I want
the truth. So I said, OK, Lou, do it all you like
andget it out of your system. Know what she waid?
GLEN:
GRIGG:
Give me one night, she said. One whole night, not just
a couple or three hours. Imagine, Glen, the whole damned
night diving into that charnel houset She needs it so
: bad it's like a pain and I lover her so much I won't see
her suffer. So I said, OK, you have that one whole night.
Nhkckxkxxxkyxtkaxexex Tonight. But it frightens me,
Glent She told me they only have to get inside a room
and they just kind of throw themselves in like boxers,
they*re stripped off before you can say Hieronymus Boscht
GLEN:
On my bed, too.
GRIGG:
Exactly, Glen. That' S why we're here. I promi sed to
keep you out of that bed till dawn.
GLEN:
What? - But I had a sleepless night---I can't do thatt
GRIGG:
Think of it like an all-night vigil, a kind of duty.
Boy, I'm in such a state I could fertilise a shed full
o' cattlet Don't tell me infidelity breaks up marriages-
itts an aphrodisiac:
MURII EL enters.
: MURIEL: Dance, honey?
GRIGG:
Well---would yo u excuse mo, Glen?
MURIEL: And, listen, I don't want a drunk on my hands tonigh t.


They go.
GLEN: -
I took the chance of leavinge I méan, she looked as
if she had plenty for him to do, without me. It wasn't
long after midnight and I spent the whole night walking.
I didn't mnd. It was better than drinking, and my
tiredness wore off. I walked in St James' S Park, and
heard the ducks stirring at the edge of the lake.
No thing moved along the Mall, and it seemed like a
quiet garden path leading into the past. The mist
turned to fog, and poured from the river in cloud-fulls,
chilling and choking, and fog-horns sounded from the
Docks. When I got to the office it was the hour of
dawn but you could see no thing. The door to the street
had been left open. There were no lights on upstairs.
The lights are dim.
GLEN:
The office lay in a curious silence, its furniture
waiting for us tenants, dim and soft. There was no
light to be switched on for the stairs, and I stumbled
up slowly, aware of her scént again. They must have
left Ea moment ago. Ot perhaps they were si till there?
fallen asle eep?
The lights go out.
GLEN:
I wall ked up the remaining stairs cautiously, listening
for the sound of breathing. But thére was no thing.
At the top of the stairs I again stood silently, listen
ing as hard asI could. My door was open. I fumbled
for the light. Strangely, I was aware of someone and
nearly decided to go back down again. But I switched
the light one
The attic roome
The lights come up. PALERMO
is lying face-down in the bed,
one arm danglinga He is app-
arently naked, but covered most-
ly by blankets.


GLEN:
I saw a hand, then an arm, and thought they must both
be there, asleep. But nothing stirred. The hand was
lying open in a submissive way, dangling. It was his.
And he was alone. He was quite still, A towel-- one
of mine---lay on the floor. His hand had a delicate
stillness about it---a heavy gold ring on his marriage
finger. I'd never seen the back of his neck befare-
delicate too, with something hesitant. I was about to
call him, even to pull him by the arm, but then I saw
what his stillness was. I stood there for a long time,
the silnce so deep that the noise of my shoes when I
moved made me jump. But death calmed meo I stared
and stared at hime.* I knelt down and looked into his
face. His eyes were closed. No breathing. I called
his name softly, 'Palermo, Palermo.' My whisper was
like dust. I began shivering. His clothes were on my
chest of drawers, the trousers thrown down carelessly.
All the time I gazed at his body. His neck seemed to
become frailer and frailer, unguarded nowe I sat down
close to him, my feet tucked. up to avoid his hand.
And I went on looking at him. Once a sigh came from
him, but I knew he wasn't alive: it was like the last
sigh afterwards, when. the sumnary has been taken. The
door was ajar, leading into darkness. It was like talk-
ing to hims He lay there telling me everything that had
happoned, and was still advising me. But now he was
telling me real things, and I was listening, so much that
I didn't want to get up, ever. Yet I would never know
what he said. A car went by outside, booming between
the ho uses. He seemed to be disappearing from life
slowly. The talking was over. I got up, groaned with
the effort. I walked downstairs, yawning and shivering
in. turne I went through to his offi ce and took up the
phone, dialled the, operator and said in a tired voice
hardly above a whisper, *Get me the police'. She said,
11 What is it for, please?' But I said nothing to this.
* Then at last she said, 'I'll get them for you.'
And m
I mupled the address. A long time passed. I heard
voicès on the stairs. People came up slowly, clattering
with their bootse They talked to each other.
FIRST POLICEMAN (off) Reckon this is right?
SECOND POLICEMAN (off) Anybody here?
FIRST POLICEMAN (appearing) There's a bloke.
The two policemen, in plain
clothes, enter.
FIRST POLICEMAN: OK, mate, you look after the bed. (To GLEN)
What's happened? Whose room is this? Yours?
Suppose you come along to the station with us? There' 8
plenty of time. We've got a car. It's only round
the corner. Phone here? How did it happen, mate?


FIRST POLICEMAN goes out wi th
GLEN.
Darkness again.
Police station.
FIRSE POLICEMAN: Can you explain what he was doing in your
room?
GLEN:
He used it sometimes.
FIRST P: What for?
GLEN:
I don't know.
FIRST P: I reckon you do know, mate.
GLEN:
Well, it's not my business.
FIRST P: It's ours, thought There were signs of violence, we
think. Not violence exactly but some struggle took
place. Know anything. about that?
GLEN:
SECOND- POLICEMAN brings in a cup
of tea and puts it down by GLEN.
SECOND P: Cup of tea--warm you up.
GLEN:
How long are you going to keep me here?
SECOND POLICEMAN goes.
FIRST P: We have to guard against foul play. If he's a friend
of yours, you'll understand that. The post mortem'11
be through in a minute.
GLEN drinks thirstily.


FIRST P: So what was he doing in your bed?
GLEN:
Hell, he used to sleep there.
FIRST P: But he had a place of his owne
GLEN:
Well, it was his office, not my place at all.
FIRST P: And you say you walked about all night?
GLEN:
Yes.
FIRST P: You're hiding something from me, but I'll find out what
it is.
SECOND POLICEMAN returns.
SECOND P: He was wi th Grigg's wife.
FIRSI P: Who was?
SECOND P: The deceased.
FIRST P: Better ring Cambridge constabulary.
SECOND POLICEMAN goes out.
FIRSI P: (showing him a no tebook) Recognise this?
GLEN:
Yes, it's mine.
FIRST P: Can you' tell me what it's about?
GLEN:
Kind of weather diary. I'd been losing money on my
wine.
FIRST P: What about the rockets to the moon? What about
this Ranger rocket launched from US to hit moon;
Russians launch satelli te with two men aboerd'.
Does that come under the heading of weather?
GLEN:
I thought So. It worked out---about ten days after-
wards the weather al ways started playing tricks. Just
a hunch.
FIRST PO: Known Professor Grigg long?
GLEN:
FIRST P:: Did you have dinner wi th him in Cambridge on the 28th
of last: month?
GLEN:
Yes---well, I suppose it was that date. About then.


FIRST P: Did you come to England to contact him?
GLEN:
No. I'd never heard of him.
FIRST P: Did you speak to General Heeley at the professor's
apartment on another occasion?
GLEN:
FIRST P: Were you aware of the existence of Mr Charles Dornelling
at the flat on this second occasion?
GLEN:
Not until afterwards, when I was introduced to him.
FIRST P: We found your suitcases packed. Can you explain that?
GLEN:
I did it the night before.
FIRST P: Why?
GLEN:
I don't know.
FIRST P: You meant to leave?
GLEN:
The work was getting me down, I suppo se---yes.
FIRST P: It's the main reason I'm keeping you here.
SECOND POLICEMAN comes in.
SECOND P: There' S a call for this gentleman, from Cambridge.
FIRS? P: Who from?
SECOND P: Professor Grigg's wife.
FIRST P: Put it thraugh. You can take it alone.
Both policemen leave.
GLEN (answering phone) Yes?
LOUISE (over. the speakers) You fo und hin.
GLEN:
Yes.
LOUI ISE: Glen---I had to pull myself out from underneath.
I couldn't get out. I was crying. I was pleading
with him, Glen, and he wasn't alive any more. Jeff's
having a Mass said. Glen... Godd bye.
GLENS
Good bye.


7 Af
She hangs up.
FIRST POLICEMAN returns.
FIRST P: Well, the autopsy's through.. Heart failure.
I thought that was the story. Always. a woman in
it somewhere, eh? > So you can go, sir. Take
some rest. Like a car back?
GLEN:
No, that's all right, thanks.
PIRST P: Mind how you go.
No more props. GLEN is
alone.
GLEN:
I went back to the office. No one was there.
Lou's words kept rolling in my mind like a prayer-
wheel. I went to the bank and transferred over
three hundred pounds into traveller's cheques.
And I bought a ticket to Naples. I even remem-
bered Mr Parsons and went to see him. I told
him the police had been to my room and he almost
pushed me out of his shop. I wondered about
Muriel. I thought of her with Palermo, as if their
destiny lay together. I even thought she might
be his wife. The little prayer-wheel of thought
went round and round: in the train, in the taxi,
in the harbour. It only stopped when I was stand-
ing in my own bedroom, with half my vineyard in
ruins outside. Most of my terraces were broken
down, staves and wires as well, though not disast-
rously. What they called a cyclone--- another one. -
had done it. Part of an outhouse had collapsed
on my vats and casks. A wall had split like an
orange. It wasn't much, all told, My wife had
thought not to worry me about it. And our house
was all right. AIt would need every penny of the
/Bue
money I had made. I was in luck, there. And I'd
made a friend, who was dead.