Three Score & Ten

He was about thirty-two. He was one of Selina’s weak men. His weakness was an overwhelming fear of his wife, so that he took great pains not to be taken unawares in bed with Selina on the country week-ends, even although his wife was in California. As he locked the door of the bedroom Felix would say, very worried, ‘I wouldn’t like to hurt Gareth,’ or some such thing. The first time he did this Selina looked through the bathroom door, tall and beautiful with wide eyes, she looked at Felix to see what was the matter with him. He was still anxious and tried the door again. On the late Sunday mornings, when the bed was already uncomfortable with breakfast crumbs, he would sometimes fall into a muse and be far away. He might then say, ‘I hope there’s no way Gareth could come by knowledge of this hideout.’ And so he was one of those who did not want to posses Selina entirely; and being beautiful and liable to provoke possessiveness, she found this all right provided the man was attractive to sleep with and be out with, and was a good dancer.

Muriel Spark, Girls of Slender Means

Before the grimy window rain fell from a darkening sky on the bomb-sites of Red Lion Square. Jane had looked out in an abstract pose before making her revelation to Nicholas. She now actually noticed the scene, it made her eyes feel miserable and her whole life appeared steeped in equivalent misery. She was disappointed in life, once more.

‘I’ll tell you another fact,’ said Nicholas. ‘I’m a crook too. What are you crying for?’

‘I’m crying for myself,’ said Jane. ‘I’m going to look for another job.’

‘Will you write a letter for me?’

‘What sort of letter?’

‘A crook-letter. From Charles Morgan to myself. Dear Mr Farringdon, When I first received your manuscript I was tempted to place it aside for my secretary to return to you with some polite excuse. But as happy chance would have it, before passing your work on to my secretary, I flicked over the pages and my eyes lit on…’

‘Lit on what?’ said Jane.

‘I’ll leave that to you. Only choose one of the most concise and brilliant passages when you come to write the letter. That will be difficult, I admit, since all are equally brilliant. But chose the piece you like best. Charles Morgan is to say he read that one piece, and then the whole, avidly, from start to finish. He is to say it’s a work of genius. He congratulates me on a work of genius, you realize. Then I show the letter to George.’

Jane’s life began to sprout once more, green with possibility. She recalled that she was only twenty-three, and smiled.

Muriel Spark, Girls of Slender Means