Free Family and Friends by Anita Brookner Page A

are. Have you got enough money?’ She goes on, again with this extraordinary calm and freedom, to tell Betty to write to her mother; to tell her too, although she knows that Alfred will be furious about this, to get in touch with Maître Blin if she needs any assistance. She then examines her sister and sees that she looks marvellous. In spite of the fact that Betty has already bought herself an inexpensive-looking fur jacket, which she is wearing over one of her violently printed silk dresses, Mimi sees that the instinct that brought Betty to Paris was entirely correct. Far from looking sordid or decrepit, as if age and sin had already taken their toll, Betty has a coral bloom in her cheeks that has nothing at all to do with make-up but owes something perhaps to the many strands of coral necklace that she has wound round her startlingly white throat. The coral braceleted hand that still holds the handle of the coffee-cup has coral-coloured nails, and the grey eyes that look at her so sharply are rimmed with a subtle grey shadow that has replaced the earlier applications of kohl. All at once Mimi is conscious of the fact that she must look as timeless as the Lady of Shalott in comparison, and is instantly aware that she should do something about it. ‘How will you live?’ she asks Betty, mildly pursuing a need to take home an answer. ‘Don’t worry about me,’ replies Betty proudly. ‘I’ve got an audition at the Moulin Rouge this afternoon.’ She has too. She has simply walked into the place and asked them to take her on, and themanager, not a bad sort of man, is so amused that she has been told to report back this very afternoon to go through her paces.
    For a little while the two sisters sit, their faces turned not to each other but to the grey street, an empty regular unmemorable street, almost suburban in its small daytime preoccupations. Opposite them, on the other side, is a little grocery store, and two women with heavy shopping bags stand outside and talk. A postman lopes by and they both greet him. A woman with a dog on a leash emerges from a nearby building and waves to the two women chatting outside the store. Everybody seems very friendly and reliable. At the counter in the Café-Bar des Acacias stand a group of workmen, with curious hats, splashed with plaster or white paint, pushed to the back of their heads. There is very muted conversation. Betty snaps her fingers and orders more coffee, then looks enquiringly at Mimi: you too? Yes, nods Mimi. So the sisters sit peaceably and drink their coffee in the warm and still grey morning air.
    Their brief communion is shattered by the sight and sound of Frank Cariani, who appears round the corner labouring under the weight of a heavy suitcase. He seems unsurprised to see the two of them, as he is so used to seeing them together, but merely grins cheerfully and puts his suitcase down with a sigh of relief. It is quite clear to Mimi that he has just arrived, and the enormous burden of what she has managed not to think about slips away from her, leaving her blissfully happy. Frank too is happy, thinking that he must have imagined the slightly disagreeable undertones of this adventure, which had always disturbed him. Here are the two girls, together as usual, just as they used to be, on holiday, apparently, and here he is, being agreeable to them, as he has always been. Whatever he thought his plans were, he is more thanhappy to abandon them, and he no doubt thinks that he can go home again with only a little explaining to do, and no bad conscience. He is aware, of course, that Betty has immediately started sparkling and pouting at him, but he is rather used to women doing this, so he takes little notice of her. He has booked a room at the Hôtel des Acacias, but then he never expected to stay anywhere else and thinks nothing of it. Why not enjoy a few days’ holiday himself? His father owes him that much, and he has surreptitiously cancelled his lessons for the