The Finishing School by Muriel Spark

Author:Muriel Spark [Spark, Muriel]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2011-09-12T15:47:56+00:00

11

According to the catechism of the Roman Catholic faith, into which Rowland had been born, six sins against the Holy Spirit are specified. The fourth is ‘Envy of Another’s Spiritual Good’, and that was the sin from which Rowland suffered.

Suffered is the right word, as it often is in cases where the perpetrators are in the clutches of their own distortions. With Rowland, his obsessive jealousy of Chris was his greatest misfortune. And jealousy is an affliction of the spirit which, unlike some sins of the flesh, gives no-one any pleasure. It is a miserable emotion for the jealous one with equally miserable effects on others.

After the fashion show Olive, that manageress of the nearby hotel, who, with Israel, had distributed the prizes had said in her speech, ‘How I wish I could have spent part of my youth in a school like yours. And no exams … It could have been a wonderful memory.

‘And this evening,’ Israel added, ‘is going to be a wonderful memory.’ He smiled at Nina, and she at him.

This exchange of smiles was noticed by Rowland. Almost to his own surprise he didn’t feel in the least jealous of his wife. He was watchful of Chris who was telling Olive how much he enjoyed sitting in one of the hotel’s capacious public rooms, working at peace on notes for his novel.

‘You’re writing a novel?’

‘Oh yes. I’m well ahead with it.’

Olive turned to Rowland, ‘You must be terribly proud of your student-novelist. What a distinction for your school —‘ and turning to Chris — ‘Do come any time and use our writing-rooms. You can bring your laptops and things. We’ll be delighted.’

‘He hasn’t got a publisher yet,’ said Rowland. ‘That’s the sine qua non of a book.’

‘He’ll get a publisher,’ said Olive, brimming with goodwill and middle-aged glow.

‘I could kill him,’ thought Rowland. ‘But would that be enough?’

Many times, now, Rowland thought of how it would be if Chris were dead. It wouldn’t do. It wouldn’t be enough. There would always remain the fact that Chris had lived, had been writing a novel while still at school, had prevented Rowland from writing his novel.

Rowland, opening his notebook of Observations on Chris one night before going to bed, found the following words, not his: Watch him at table sitting next to Mary Foot. He is a groper.

Rowland rushed into the bedroom where Nina was already in bed, propped up, reading a book. ‘Someone’s been meddling with my work,’ he said.

‘Meddling? How?’

‘I’ve found words in my notebook that I didn’t write.’

‘I’d say it was Chris,’ she said, and went on reading. ‘Are you going to let him get away with it?’

‘Oh, Rowland, can’t you talk to him yourself?’

‘No, I’d prefer to put up with him. It’s only a couple of months, and he’ll be going. Don’t let it worry you, then,’ he said.

Nothing was worrying her, but she knew he was upset once more by Chris. Only a couple of months to the end of the school year. Nina had spent the afternoon with Israel Brown, not quite in bed, but nearly.

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