Ben, in the World by Doris Lessing(Little Dorrit)

Author:Doris Lessing(Little Dorrit)
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: sf_social
ISBN: 0006552293
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2001-11-16T23:00:00+00:00

Inez told Teresa that her boss — she put it like that, tactfully, not saying that she had known this 'boss' all her life, as a friend of her parents — would be interested to meet Ben. Teresa was at once on her guard. She was afraid. This immediate, honest and true reaction was swept away because of her awe at words like scientist, science: she knew nothing about all that, her education had not been much more than reading, writing and arithmetic, and a lot of religion. She knew she was ignorant, but not how ignorant: Inez's education was to her a wonder, something distant and unreachable, and she marvelled that Inez knew scientists as colleagues the way she herself knew bar girls and actresses who were more often than not out of work, and singers who were glad to sing in clubs for their suppers and perhaps a few reals more. Inez was glamorous because she worked in a laboratory, and understood the secrets of the modern world. Teresa asked what this scientist was going to do with Ben, and Inez replied, 'Just take a look at him.' Inez knew she was being deceitful, but her education had taught her that truth, scientific truth, was more important than anything else: you could say that her education had as much religion in it as Teresa's. She had a pretty good idea that 'having a look' at Ben would not be the end of it, but she felt powerful and useful, introducing this creature who was obviously a kind of scientific enigma, to someone who could solve it. She did not say any of this to Teresa, who knew she was being lied to, and that Inez's cool smiling face was suddenly that of an enemy. Their friendship died at that moment.

Teresa insisted that the meeting must be one that wouldn't frighten Ben, and so it was arranged that next Sunday Inez and her 'boss' and a few more friends, all known to Ben, would assemble. Ben was not told anyone special was coming. Meanwhile Teresa was in a seethe of anxiety, even while she assured herself that the situation could not go out of control: had she not set terms and conditions, had Inez not promised to respect them?

Teresa and her friends, with Ben, were already sitting around the table midday on Sunday when Inez arrived with Luiz Machado, a handsome urbane man of forty or so, smiling to set these people at their ease. He ran a department in the institute which investigated rainforest plants, one of many similar departments, and while something like Ben was not in his line, there was another department, 'the bad place' in fact, run by someone who would find Ben a prize. While Luiz Machado was determined not to be intimidating, it was evident he was not easy in this company. He had criticised Inez for being too friendly with Teresa and for going into the favela: she might have been killed

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