The Pumpkin Eater Read Online Free Page B

silver and cut glass, lighting up the old man’s polished toecaps, sliding over the leather chairs. He took another cheese straw, weighed it in his fingers. “What for?”
    We couldn’t answer that. He waited, then bit the straw neatly. “I’ll give you a cheque. Not much, mind you, because I’m a poor man. You’ll want a little party, I daresay, after the event, a few bottles of champagne and so on. I’ll give you twenty-five pounds on the express condition that you spend it on that. You understand me?”
    â€œBut we
can’t
— ” I began.
    He looked at me sharply for the first time. “On second thoughts,” he said. “Get a caterer. And send me the bill.”
    My father said, “There are a few quite practical points I’d like to get straight. Sit down, Armitage. Can I roll you a cigarette?”
    â€œNo, thanks,” Jake said. He lowered himself on to a battered leather pouf patterned in dark blue and red diamonds. My father swivelled himself round to his desk and adjusted the lamp to shine exactly over it. “Are you pouring the tea, dear?” he asked.
    â€œTea?” I asked Jake. We had just had sausages and mash and banana custard for supper.
    â€œNo. No, thanks.”
    â€œThere’s some elderberry wine in the larder,” my father said. “Darling, run and get the elderberry wine.”
    â€œNo, thanks,” Jake said. “Really.”
    â€œWell, then. We’ll declare the meeting open.” He swivelled round again and smiled encouragingly at Jake. “Now we don’t want to go into the whys and wherefores of all this. You’re both grown people, with minds of your own. I must say that for a young man with his life in front of him to saddle himself with a brood of children and a wife as plain feckless as this daughter of mine seems to me lunacy. Lunacy. The only good thing about it is that at last she’s picked a
man
and not some … fiddler or scribbler like the others. I like you, Armitage. I think you’re a fool, but I’d like to help you make a go of it. You think that’s fair?”
    â€œThanks. Thanks very much,” Jake said. “Very fair.”
    â€œIf I give you a start, you think you can carry on from there?”
    â€œI hope so.”
    â€œI hope so too. The first thing is to shed the load a bit. I suggest we send the elder children to boarding school. I have particulars of a couple of schools here, perhaps you’d like to look them over?”
    He handed two leaflets to Jake and sat back, tapping his pencil on the edge of the desk. “They’re only a few miles apart,” he said. “Both by the sea. Of course they’re not Harrow or Roedean exactly, but it’ll give them a chance of getting scholarships later on, if they’re bright enough. What do you think?”
    â€œNo,” I said. “Of course not. We can’t send them away, they’re too young. Anyway, we can’t afford it. Anyway — !”
    â€œPipe down, dear,” my father said tartly. “This is Jake’s business, not yours. I’m taking out educational policies that will pay for their schooling for the next five years. That will make them respectively…” he glanced at a sheet of paper on his desk, “fourteen, twelve and eleven. We should know by then whether they’re capable of getting any further, and Jake will have had a chance to get established. What do you think?” he asked Jake.
    â€œI think it’s a very good idea.”
    â€œNo!” I said.
    â€œLook, be sensible,” Jake said. They’d love it. I’d be good for them.”
    â€œIt wouldn’t! They’d hate it! Why can’t you just give us the money — ?”
    â€œBecause that’s not the point,” my father snapped. “I’m not going to have you crushing this boy with responsibility from the word go. As it is