Echo House by Ward Just

Author:Ward Just
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Sylvia left and returned with a drink, sitting quietly, and watching him speak into the receiver, his voice rising and falling with an intensity that fascinated her, his swivel chair creaking as it moved minutely to and fro. When he finished, he replaced the receiver and faced straight ahead, his eyes closed, apparently still thinking about the German who had to be pinned down in order to establish his provenance, meaning who owned him. She was certain that Axel had forgotten she was in the room when he suddenly looked at her and smiled warily, asking her how her day had gone. Who was that? she asked. Who were you talking to on the telephone? The usual business, he replied, boring overseas business to do with a man who won't cooperate; it's not a big thing but we have to do it, you see. His right hand went to his scar as he continued to smile tightly at her. But he volunteered nothing further.

There was a time when, with his great charm and energy, he could make her do anything, go anywhere, Helsinki in winter, Calcutta in summer, Paris on the eve of invasion; not to go with him was to miss out He seemed invulnerable then, happy all day long. Axel Behl drew people to him like a magnet. He had such gaiety and sincerity, and grace. He attracted men as well as women and why not—he wore ardor on his sleeve. Men admired him and women sent him flowers. But that was in Europe before the war. That was before the OSS. That was before he left her in England to go play soldier with wretched Fred Greene, with disastrous results.

She remembered that he wearily proposed a drink, pushing back from his desk, waiting for her to precede him into the garden room, where the drinks paraphernalia was laid out. He looked at her curiously when she did not move, except to place her highball carefully on the edge of the desk and begin to speak to him, so rapidly that the words tumbled over themselves. She was so eager to get it over with.

She demanded a sincere apology from him for the previous evening, and a promise that he would never again hit her, ever, for whatever reason. It would be difficult to begin again, but impossible without the apology. When he remained silent, she told him she was leaving. Any idiot could see that their marriage was a misalliance. They both wore false faces. She'd thought she could make a go of it but couldn't no matter how hard she tried, and she had tried; give her that. They were not suited to each other. They did not believe in the same things. People changed whether they wanted to or not and suddenly black was white. She had not wanted anything to happen but something had happened and she was leaving at once to join Willy Borowy in New York. I'm sorry about it, she said.

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