Game of Hide and Seek, A by Taylor Elizabeth

Author:Taylor, Elizabeth [Taylor, Elizabeth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Modern Classics, Novel, Fiction
ISBN: 9781844085293
Publisher: New York Review Books
Published: 1968-01-02T05:00:00+00:00

2

At the beginning of the spring, Hugo fell ill. It was uncertain weather: a queasy sunshine alternated with a glowering violet sky; a choppy wind set all the bushes jigging.

Hugo’s illness was Harriet’s only way of seeing Vesey. They sat on either side of his bed staring at one another. Then at times, she would feel whipped up into excitement. She moved consciously, with his eyes on her: what she said to Hugo was always for Vesey’s benefit. Hugo found her good and gentle. Although shy in her dealings with him, she was more soothing than Deirdre. He was not such a fool that he thought Vesey good to be there, but the loveliness in the room invigorated him, he felt part of the exquisite tension and drew strength from it. Sunlight came in with them. He suddenly saw that life is short and happiness a good thing, to be made much of. He lay there, feeling washed up and discarded, saw that they made use of his illness. There they could be together without blame. His death would remove their chaperon, and send Vesey back to lying and scheming. He did not think that Harriet would lie or scheme, not knowing that they acted in unison and that one could not be separated from the behaviour of the other.

Although he brought them together, he was a brake upon their love; he kept it a matter of glances, of sudden downward looks, of hands accidentally brushing together. He wondered what would happen to them. His wondering took him from one day to another. Feeling no pity for them, not judging them nor abetting them. They might have been characters in a play, though less interesting since it was a play whose conclusion he would not see.

In the end, they were not there. He died in Deirdre’s arms; his son standing at the foot of the bed. They had been a happy, loyal family. He thought, in his last hours, and when he was able to think at all, that something had been accomplished. Perhaps Harriet and Vesey had no place there.

The next time they met, the blinds were drawn. Joseph and Deirdre were once more polite, composed and well-behaved.

‘I always remember,’ Harriet said, as she and Vesey walked in the tangled garden, ‘how he helped me when my mother died. I had never been to a cremation before. He made me sit down and listen to all that would happen, so that nothing could shock me. When the coffin began to slide away, he said I should think of a liner on a slipway, beginning its voyage, a sad and yet a noble occasion. He spared me nothing, but when the time came I was all right. I was grateful to him. He was kind, and didn’t jib at difficult things.’

‘He didn’t cotton to me much,’ Vesey said. ‘He always made me feel tricky and emotionally disorderly.’

A half-blind spaniel waddled at their heels. When Vesey threw a stick, trying to make the dog run, it only turned a watery and indifferent eye.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.