The Unbegotten Read Online Free

was quite a trick.’
    â€˜Thank you,’ Maddern said, still stiffly.
    â€˜And I also hope you will accept my apologies for the rather melodramatic nature of your welcome. It wasn’t meant to be so formal. You happened to be the last to arrive, and the others had already been briefed. Everyone was asked to meet Dr. Simister, or Mr. Brody here, in an endeavour not to attract too much attention, or start anybody thinking too much. When they arrived they were asked if they would wait for a few minutes to hear a word or two from me.’ Until that moment, Palfrey had spoken earnestly and looked almost solemn, but now his lips curved and his eyes crinkled at the corners. ‘Will you spare me a few minutes, too? It is for a very good reason, I assure you.’
    With sharp relief, Maddern turned back to the room he had so recently left, saying, ‘Yes, of course.’ The man whom he had hurled against the wall was standing upright, and looking at him, Maddern, as if with approval. Palfrey walked with Maddern leading him to a chair on one side, not the one towards which Simister had pushed him. As he sat down, Maddern felt a flush of embarrassment at his cheeks, wished heartily that he hadn’t made a scene, and slid his right hand aimlessly in his pocket. The man next to him, Henshaw, the ear, nose and throat consultant, was pulling at a smelly pipe.
    Sir Gerald Daley made a loud coughing noise, and then stood up. He and Palfrey were facing the twenty-odd doctors and surgeons in the room, and Daley seemed to be looking everywhere but at Maddern.
    â€˜Great honour to have Dr. Palfrey with us,’ he said. ‘ Very great pleasure. Won’t take up any of his valuable time. Or yours. Dr. Palfrey.’ He grunted again and sat down, surprisingly embarrassed in the great man’s presence. To find Daley ill-at-ease was like seeing a bubble burst; Maddern would never again be over-impressed by him at a consultation.
    My God! If there were any more consultations for a gynaecologist.
    Palfrey began to speak, and somehow this added to his stature; to his authority. Whenever he was taking some kind of positive action, he was very impressive indeed; it was as if speech revealed the strength and nature of the man.
    â€˜Thank you, Sir Gerald.’ He smiled briskly, reaching out to everyone in the room. ‘I think I should be very frank with you. First, I can’t command it but I would be most grateful if you will treat what I have to say in strict confidence.’ There was a round of murmured assurance. ‘Thank you, gentlemen. I came here today because of the strange dearth of babies—indeed, of pregnancies—in this part of the world.’
    Maddern felt a shock of surprise as Palfrey went on, ‘It is a phenomenon which has been puzzling the authorities in other places for a long time. If you ask me to specify the districts I can only say that various rural areas have been affected; that they are not restricted to Local Authority areas: in short, that this one is quite typical and that the general development of the situation has been much the same everywhere. I’ve been asked by the British Government to get what information I can. You may know that I have a peculiar kind of responsibility. As the chief executive of an international organisation known as Z5, I have to try to keep a finger on the pulse of any phenomena which might threaten mankind on a large or a small scale. And—’ he put his right hand to his forehead and began to twirl a few strands of his fair hair about his forefinger ‘there could be no greater danger than the dying out of the race.’
    When he stopped there was a kind of sigh from the listeners, suggesting that the deep significance of what he had said came home belatedly to the assembled doctors. Certainly everyone stared very intently at Palfrey, who slowly and deliberately untwined the strands of hair and patted them back into