Free Family and Friends by Anita Brookner

corner building overhung by heavy trees. She knows that she will find Betty there, and that she will no longer be responsible for Betty’s actions. To Mimi, in one of her rare moments of wisdom, comes the knowledge that she is no longer responsible for a person whose actions are so hidden and so damaging. If anything, Mimi desires to see this new Betty simply in order to document herself on the circumstances in which Betty has chosen to live. She knows perfectly well that these will not be entirely respectable, and her one desire is to spare Alfred the sight of an unmade bed, perhaps a smear of make-up on a not entirely clean morning face, a suspicious concierge, an airless smell in the corridor … Brought up against this, Mimi knows, Alfred will lose his temper, lose his head. Far better that she, Mimi, should make a survey, uninfluenced, undisturbed; she will then know how much, or rather, how little, to tell her mother.
    Mimi descends the steps and gets into a taxi. ‘Rue des Acacias,’ she says to the driver.
‘Déposez-moi au coin de la rue, s’il vous plaît.’
Throughout the brief drive she gazes unseeingly through the window at the streets now hectic with traffic and confusion. Her massive feeling of control has not yet left her, and she is mildly surprised but in a blessedly detached sort of way. It seems to her that she has somehow come into her own, that she has left behind not only Betty, but Alfred, Sofka, and Frederick, the one whom facially she most closely resembles. If she is to see them again, she feels, it will be as a different person. She has no clear idea what she means by this.
    The Hôtel des Acacias is indeed exactly as she imagined it. It occupies the sharp angled corner of two streets and is bounded by a blind stone wall over which heavy trees lift very dark heads. The only thing that Mimi has not imagined is the extreme cleanliness and propriety of the place. There is no sullen concierge but an eager little woman ready to answer her questions; she stands behind a tiny counter with a tiny stand of postcards on it and is only too pleased to respond to Mimi’s queries. Yes, Mademoiselle Dorn is staying there and the little woman is very glad to know that someone has come to see her; the young lady is perhaps
too
young to be staying there alone. Will Madame be requiring a room? No, says Mimi, thoughtfully; that will not be necessary. If she could just see Mademoiselle Dorn now? But of course. If Madame would just walk around the corner she will undoubtedly find the young lady eating her breakfast at the café.
    Mimi walks out of the Hôtel des Acacias, knowing that she will never return there. It is quite respectable, she will tell Sofka, and perfectly clean, and the owner seems to be quite a genuine sort of woman. She will not tell her that the place has the depressing air common to all small family-run enterprises, that there is a muted noise coming from behind a glass door which leads presumably to the family’s own quarters, that she has glimpsed a little girl playing hopscotch outside the entrance, and that there is a very faint smell of
Eau de Javel
in the foyer. And that one has to go out for all one’s meals. She has no doubt that Betty has not noticed any of these things, being too intent on herself and the scandals she proposes to bring about. Nevertheless, as Mimi rounds the corner by the blind stone wall and comes alongside the Café-Bar des Acacias, she is quite relieved and even moved to see Betty sitting there, dipping her bread into her coffee like anative, and lapping it up with one of those sideways turns of the head that her sister knows so well.
    Calmly, Mimi sits down at the table opposite her sister. Over the coffee-cup Betty’s eyes widen like a cat’s, but then they narrow, and the cup is replaced wordlessly in the saucer. For a moment, nothing is said. ‘I’m not going home,’ says Betty finally. ‘No,’ says Mimi, again quite calmly. ‘I don’t suppose you