Free Dublin 4 by Maeve Binchy Page B

…’ He looked around the smart kitchen and through the open door into the dining room with its dark polished wood. ‘So we had a long talk, all about her work. She showed me what she was doing, showing, we went through the catalogue. I explained what I could do … Jesus, if you’d heard the way I dropped the names of galleries and people in London – I even impressed myself. I promised nothing. I said I’d act as a middleman. I even sent myself up a bit and said I saw myself as a Mister Fixit … she liked that and she laughed a lot …’
    ‘Yes,’ said Carmel before he could say it. ‘I know, I know, I’ve heard. She’s very nice. Go on.’
    ‘Yes, well. I think I played it well. I must have. When I was leaving I said that we must keep in touch, that I could be here for a week and perhaps she would like to have a lunch one day. She said that would be nice, and I said the next day and we picked the place you said … I said I’d heard it was good.’
    ‘Was it?’ asked Carmel with interest.
    ‘It was and so it should be, it cost you an arm and a leg. I kept the receipt for you …’
    ‘Joe, I don’t need receipts.’
    ‘I know, but it is astronomical .’
    ‘Was it the right place … ?’
    ‘Yes, we sat on and on. She doesn’t drink much but they kept bringing pots of coffee … nobody rushed us … it was very relaxed and we broadened the conversation … she told me about how she began and how this nun at the school she went to had great faith in her even when her parents didn’t really believe she had talent.’
    Joe paused. ‘I kept leaning heavily on the notion that I was just passing through, not a permanent fixture. She was quite anxious to talk actually, I don’t need much congratulation.’
    ‘So she did tell you …’
    ‘Yes, I sort of squeezed it out of her bit by bit … not with crude questions like, “Why isn’t a girl like you married?” More about Dublin being full of gossip and disapproval … I told her I’d never be able to live here nowadays because of my own life. She said no, it wasn’t too bad … things had changed, but people did let others go their own way. I argued that with her, and then she had to get down to specifics. She had a false start, then she said she didn’t want to be unburdening her whole life story to a total stranger.
    ‘I said that total strangers were the only people you could possibly unburden things to. They passed like ships in the night. Sometimes it happened that you got a bit of advice from a passing ship but even if you didn’t, what the hell, the ship had passed on … itwasn’t hanging around embarrassing you every time you saw it …’
    ‘And?’
    ‘And she told me … she told me about her married man.’
    ‘Was it anything like the truth? I mean, did she describe things the way things are?’
    ‘Very like the way you told me. She met him when she was doing a job for the bank. He had taken her out to lunch, she had been lonely, he had under-stood … her father had died recently. Her mother was dead years ago. The married man was very sympathetic.’
    ‘I’m sure,’ said Carmel.
    ‘They met a lot and he was so interested in her work and so encouraging … and he believed in her – and the reason she liked him so much …’
    ‘Yes … ?’ Carmel leaned forward.
    ‘He didn’t want to hurt people or do people down. He never wanted her to score over other people. He wanted her to be content in herself and with her work … she liked that most about him.’
    Joe paused. ‘So I put it to her that he must have a bit of the louse in him to maintain two ménages, he must be a bit of a crud to have it both ways … you know, not disturbing his own lifestyle …’
    ‘What did she say?’
    ‘She thought not, she thought he was a victim of circumstances. His wife hadn’t been well, she hadbeen – sorry, Carmel – the phrase she used was “suffering from her nerves” …’
    ‘Fine, fine,’ said Carmel.
    ‘Then I