Free The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt Page B

hear. Leslie Skinner said to August Steyning that he believed he had been in court.
    “I was,” said Steyning. “I was indeed. The poor man stood in need of a friendly audience. I was compelled to bear witness. It was a true tragic fall. With uncanny aspects. Did you hear the story of the palm-reader’s predictions?”
    No, they all said, though Humphry at least knew the tale very well.
    Steyning told them, holding out his own long, pale, exquisite hands, one after the other, in illustration.
    “It was at a supper of Blanche Roosevelt. The chiromancer was in obscurity behind a curtain, and the guests thrust in their anonymous hands. The left hand, it appears, shows the destiny written in the stars, and the right hand shows what its owner will make of that destiny. Oscar’s left hand—they were
much
plumper than mine—showed huge, brilliant achievement and success. The right showed
ruin
—at a precisedate. The left hand is the hand of a king, but the right that of a king who will send himself into exile. Oscar asked the precise date, was given it, and abruptly took his leave. The prophecy appears to be fulfilled.”
    Skinner asked Steyning’s impression of the trial.
    “He bore himself with dignity and stood like a sacrificed beast. He allowed himself to be trapped into witticism. He spoke bravely about the love that dare not speak its name. He was applauded. But it was no triumph. And his present state is desperate. They have removed his name from the theatres where his plays are performing—not for much longer, I suspect. It is said prison is killing him. He had some idea of treating it as a monastery, or Prospero’s study, but he sleeps on a board, has neither books, nor pen, nor ink, and is made to work the treadmill. His flesh is fallen into folds. He cannot sleep.”
    Humphry, who moved in the world of press gossip, remarked lightly that Lord Rosebery had been sick, very sick, for months, and had suddenly recovered at the end of May. Only for his government to fall, it appeared, today. He exchanged glances with Steyning and suddenly saw Tom and Julian.
    “You don’t need to stand around listening to political chatter. Go and arrange seats for the marionettes.”
    Tom and Julian wandered away across the lawn.
    “You are always told you don’t want to hear things precisely because you do,” said Julian.
    “Do you?” Tom asked.
    “They think we don’t know these things. They ought to know you learn in school, just by being a boy. You learn them along with Greek and cricket and rowing and drawing. And sniggering and poking and passing messages. They ought to know we know. They must have known themselves.”
    Tom did not know. He lived at home and was home-tutored, though Basil and Humphry were planning for him to do the Marlowe scholarship exams next spring. Basil had intervened when Humphry had spoken of sending Tom to the newfangled newly founded Bedales where boys mucked out farm animals and swam naked. Basil would help, he said, with his nephew’s fees. Tom was very bright, good at maths, good at languages. He did Latin and Greek with the anarchists, who likedteaching, and were grateful for the income. He did maths with a tutor, whose lessons would increase after the summer. Tom walked through lanes and meadows to his lessons. He lived wild, much of the time. He was not sure he wanted to know what Julian was talking about. He was not sure he wanted to be friends with Julian. He was often unsure what he wanted, and as a result, being amiable, he had many acquaintances and no close friends. He was thirteen, and still all boy, whereas Julian was fifteen, and could on occasion be a serious young man.
    Tom’s spectacles made him look owlish. His fine fair hair sprang all ways, and asked to be ruffled. His skin was young, unspotted, and golden brown with outdoor living. He had his mother’s eyes and long lashes. His cheekbones were high and wide, his mouth gentle. He was the sort of beautiful boy, quite