Free Under the Net by Iris Murdoch

and I could feel every ear strained in our direction. I thought it impossible that there was anyone in the room who didn’t know who Sadie was. I settled down to enjoy the conversation.
    â€˜How’s life treating you?’ I asked.
    â€˜Oh, it’s too utterly boring,’ said Sadie. ‘I’m simply worn out with work. On the set from dawn to dusk. I’ve only just managed to escape to get my hair done here in peace. I’ve quarrelled with the hairdresser at the studio. I’m so tired, I quarrel with everyone these days.’ She cast me an enticing smile.
    â€˜When are you going to have dinner with me, Sadie?’ I asked.
    â€˜Oh, darling,’ said Sadie, ‘I’m tied up for days and days. Someone’s even coming to fetch me away from this place. You must come round some time and have a drink at my flat.’
    I calculated quickly. Sadie’s days probably were heavily mortgaged and this might be my only opportunity of talking with her for some time. So if I was going to raise the ticklish subject it had better be done now.
    â€˜Listen, Sadie,’ I said, lowering my voice.
    â€˜What’s that, darling?’ shouted Sadie from under the drier.
    â€˜Listen!’ I shouted back. ‘I gather that you want to let your flat while you’re away.’
    I couldn’t bring myself, in front of such an audience, to put the matter less delicately. I hoped that Sadie would pick it up with tact.
    Sadie’s response was even more amiable than I had bargained for. ‘My dear boy,’ she said, ‘don’t speak of letting. I want a caretaker, in fact I want a bodyguard - and you can take on from now if you like.’
    â€˜Well, I’d be very glad,’ I said. ‘The lease of my present place has just expired and I’m pretty well on the streets.’
    â€˜Then, my dear, you must come at once,’ roared Sadie. ‘You’ll be most enormously useful if you can just be around the place a little. You see, I’m being persecuted by the most frightful man.’
    This sounded interesting. I could feel the ears being pricked up all round us. I laughed in a masculine way.
    â€˜Well, I suppose I’m fairly tough,’ I said. ‘I don’t mind keeping an eye on things, provided I can get some work done too.’ Already I had visions of something even better than Earls Court Road.
    â€˜My dear, it’s an enormous flat,’ said Sadie. ‘You can have a suite of rooms. I’ll just feel so much safer if you can come and stay there till I go away. This fellow is quite madly in love with me. He keeps calling and trying to get in at all hours, and when he doesn’t cail he rings up, and I’m just a nervous wreck.’
    â€˜You won’t start being afraid of me, I suppose?’ I said, leering at her in the glass. Sadie went off into peals of laughter. ‘Jake, darling, no, you’re just too utterly harmless!“ she called out.
    I didn’t so much care for this turn in the conversation. Out of the comer of my eye I could see several elegantly dressed women craning their necks to get a look at me. I felt we should change the subject.
    â€˜Who is this intolerable person?’ I asked.
    â€˜I’m afraid it’s the big chief himself, it’s Belfounder,’ said Sadie. ‘So you can just imagine how embarrassing it all is. I’m simply beside myself.’
    At the utterance of this name I nearly fell off my chair. The room spun round and round, and I seemed to be seeing Sadie through a cloud. This altered everything. With an enormous effort I kept my face composed, but my stomach was rearing inside me like a wild cat. I wanted nothing now but to get away and think over this astonishing news.
    â€˜Are you sure?’ I said to Sadie.
    â€˜My sweet boy, I know my own boss,’ said Sadie.
    â€˜I mean, sure that he loves you,’ I said.
    â€˜He’s absolutely