The Nightwatchman's Occurrence Book: And Other Comic Inventions by V.S. Naipaul

Author:V.S. Naipaul
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: General Fiction
ISBN: 9780375708336
Publisher: Vintage International
Published: 2002-12-15T04:35:36+00:00

5

WITH THIS SUCCESS there came a change in Mr Stone’s attitude to Whymper. Nothing was said, and their relationship continued as before, but Mr Stone found himself more and more reassessing Whymper. He found himself studying Whymper’s face and mannerisms, attempting to see them as if for the first time, and he wondered how he had come to suppress his initial distaste, how he had managed to feel affection for Whymper, to enjoy his obscene laugh and obscene jokes (Whymper on the types of fart, Whymper on the types of female walk), his puns (‘equal pay for equal shirk’), the aphorisms (‘soup is the best substitute for food I know’) which were probably not his own, the violence of his socialist-fascist political views. He felt he had been made a fool of by Whymper and had succumbed to the man’s professional charm. In these moods he was unwilling to concede honesty to any of Whymper’s actions. He saw only that his own folly and softness were complementary to Whymper’s cleverness and ruthlessness.

Of all this he told Margaret nothing. She and Whymper had become great friends. For Whymper’s benefit Margaret had extended her party manner: she dropped daring words and was ‘unshockable’. She gauged Whymper well. They enjoyed one another’s jokes, and each rejoiced that to the other he was a ‘character’.

Nor could Mr Stone tell Margaret of his irritation, annoyance, and in some moments his anguish, to find, as he thought, that Whymper was ‘riding to success on his back’. These were the words that came to his mind, and they created a picture of almost biblical pitifulness: a lusty, fat-cheeked young man on the back of someone very old, very thin, in rags, supporting his feebleness on a staff. Mr Stone could no longer hide from himself his displeasure at finding their names, Whymper and Stone, coupled so frequently. Always in such items in the house magazine it was Whymper who was quoted, so that over the months it had begun to appear that Whymper was the Unit. His own contribution, his passion and anguish had gone for nothing, had gone to magnify Whymper. Out of his life had come this one idea; for this single creation his life had been changed for good, perhaps destroyed. And it had gone to magnify Whymper, young Whymper, whose boast was that he made nothing.

Yet with this there remained the concern for Whymper that had grown out of their relationship, a concern that was almost parental and at times was like pity. Between what Whymper saw himself to be and what he was the gap was too great. His attempts at smartness were pathetic. His clothes were good; he wore them badly. He tapped his cigarette with such careful elegance; when the cigarette came out from between his bruised lips it was wet and disagreeable to see. Attempting authority, he frequently only invited rebuff; and though he seemed always half to expect rebuff, he had never learned to handle it. And like

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