Seeing Double by Pat Herbert

Author:Pat Herbert [Herbert, Pat]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2016-02-24T05:00:00+00:00

25

Stanley House looked around his nephew’s poky little flat with distaste. There was hardly any light and damp was running riot up the walls. He dreaded to think how cold and unwelcoming the place would be in winter. There was an ancient gas fire in the boarded up hearth, and he wondered just how many shillings the meter next to it would eat up keeping the flat warm. Luckily, it was a balmy summer day and he didn’t intend to hang around for the weather to change to test it out.

“Not a very salubrious environment, Arthur,” he observed, as the younger man brought in a tea tray from the kitchenette and put it down on the table with a clatter. As he poured the weak tea from the chipped teapot, it was clear to his uncle that his young nephew wasn’t used to entertaining.

“It’s all I can afford,” replied Arthur with meaning. “You never offer any help. I couldn’t go on living in the big house at Catford since you withdrew your financial support.”

“I’m sorry, Arthur, but you’re an able-bodied man and you’re quite capable of working for a living. I only helped your mother because I knew she was working all hours just to put food on the table and give you a decent home.”

“I’m trying to get a job,” Arthur almost whined, handing his uncle his tea. “But there’s nothing suitable.”

“By ‘suitable’ I suppose you mean something where you don’t have to arrive before ten o’clock and you don’t have to do any work when you get there.” He stirred his tea with venom.

“Come off it, uncle, I know I’ve got to work for a living. I don’t want to have to stay in this place too long. Lavender Hill’s not exactly my idea of a decent area to live.”

“It’s better than Catford, I would have thought. The house in Catford was too big for a single man, of course, but Clapham has a lot of better properties than this, surely?”

“At the risk of repeating myself, I can’t afford anything better.”

“Then do something about it!” Stanley almost screamed at him. “This tea’s disgusting, by the way.”

“So sorry,” said Arthur with more than a hint of sarcasm.

“Never mind,” said his uncle with a sigh. “As you know, I’m getting married tomorrow.”

“That fact hadn’t escaped me. I got your invitation.”

“Is it too much to hope that you’ll be coming?”

Arthur’s face darkened. “The least I expected was that you’d have asked me to be your best man,” he said.

Stanley looked at him, his face almost as dark now. “And would you have accepted if I’d asked you? I mean, I didn’t think you actually approved of my marrying again.”

“I don’t. A man of your age!”

“What do you mean – ‘a man of my age’?”

“What I say. At your time of life you should be growing marrows or whittling sticks, not chasing women all over the place.”

Stanley could hardly believe his ears. “I’m only in my early forties, for God’s sake. I

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