Treasures of Time by Penelope Lively

Author:Penelope Lively
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780141958057
Publisher: Penguin Adult
Published: 2010-03-13T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

‘My sister is extraordinary,’ said Laura to Tony. ‘She had an obsession about getting in here to go through some papers of Hugh’s, and nothing would stop her, she even enlisted Ted Lucas who is slow on the uptake to say the least of it, and they heaved some sort of old door over the steps… Well anyway, she has had what she calls a sort-out.’ Laura surveyed the neat and dusted desk with disapproval. ‘The dig notes are in these boxes here, so I’ll leave you to it, shall I?’

And Tony sits at this desk of a man he never met, and reads, and blinks through his Mahler spectacles at difficult handwriting, and takes notes. He is quite absorbed; he puzzles over technical details and wonders who various people referred to are (and lists them, for his secretary to check) and wishes not for the first time in his career that one could dally further but it is no good, his year is mapped out already with schedules and dead-lines and studio dates; there is so long for Hugh Paxton and no more. Once or twice he feels intrusive; a scrawled note in another hand falls from between the pages of an exercise book – ‘Have gone up to the dig, can you bring the cameras when you come, also water and lunch things on table, see you later J.’ J must remain an unknown quantity in Hugh Paxton’s life, and he puts the note tidily back, as also a sepia photograph showing two people, with eyes screwed up against the sun, amid a dusty landscape, Paxton himself and the sister, what is she called? her in the wheel chair, who is also irrelevant, so far as Tony is concerned. It is remarkable, he thinks, how comprehensive a picture one builds up, I have a pretty good idea what sort of a man Hugh Paxton was, if I met him I would know what approach to take, what his foibles are, his prejudices, that he didn’t stand fools lightly, went straight to the point, worked hard and expected others to. But relaxed hard too, drank quite a bit, had an eye for the girls. One gets a composite picture, talking to people, reading this stuff, the man fills out…

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