‘My dear lady, as a mere outsider—’
‘Nina Wycherley says you can do anything. She said I was to have the utmost confidence in you. She advised me to tell you everything—and that you’d put the whole thing right.’
Inwardly Mr Parker Pyne cursed the obtrusive Mrs Wycherley.
Resigning himself he said:
‘Well, let us thrash the matter out. A girl, I suppose?’
‘Did he tell you about her?’
‘Only indirectly.’
Words poured in a vehement stream from Mrs Chester. ‘The girl was dreadful. She drank, she swore—she wore no clothes to speak of. Her sister lived out here—was married to an artist—a Dutchman. The whole set was most undesirable. Half of them were living together without being married. Basil was completely changed. He had always been so quiet, so interested in serious subjects. He had thought at one time of taking up archaeology—’
‘Well, well,’ said Mr Parker Pyne. ‘Nature will have her revenge.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘It isn’t healthy for a young man to be interested in serious subjects. He ought to be making an idiot of himself over one girl after another.’
‘Please be serious, Mr Pyne.’
‘I’m perfectly serious. Is the young lady, by any chance, the one who had tea with you yesterday?’
He had noticed her—her grey flannel trousers—the scarlet handkerchief tied loosely around her breast—the vermilion mouth and the fact that she had chosen a cocktail in preference to tea.
‘You saw her? Terrible! Not the kind of girl Basil has ever admired.’
‘You haven’t given him much chance to admire a girl, have you?’
‘I?’
‘He’s been too fond of your company! Bad! However, I daresay he’ll get over this—if you don’t precipitate matters.’
‘You don’t understand. He wants to marry this girl—Betty Gregg—they’re engaged.’
‘It’s gone as far as that?’
‘Yes. Mr Parker Pyne, you must do something. You must get my boy out of this disastrous marriage! His whole life will be ruined.’
‘Nobody’s life can be ruined except by themselves.’
‘Basil’s will be,’ said Mrs Chester positively.
‘I’m not worrying about Basil.’
‘You’re not worrying about the girl?’
‘No, I’m worrying about you. You’ve been squandering your birthright.’
Mrs Chester looked at him, slightly taken aback.
‘What are the years from twenty to forty? Fettered and bound by personal and emotional relationships. That’s bound to be. That’s living. But later there’s a new stage. You can think, observe life, discover something about other people and the truth about yourself. Life becomes real—significant. You see it as a whole. Not just one scene—the scene you, as an actor, are playing. No man or woman is actually himself (or herself ) till after forty-five. That’s when individuality has a chance.’
Mrs Chester said:
‘I’ve been wrapped up in Basil. He’s been everything to me.’
‘Well, he shouldn’t have been. That’s what you’re paying for now. Love him as much as you like—but you’re Adela Chester, remember, a person—not just Basil’s mother.’
‘It will break my heart if Basil’s life is ruined,’ said Basil’s mother.
He looked at the delicate lines of her face, the wistful droop of her mouth. She was, somehow, a lovable woman. He did not want her to be hurt. He said:
‘I’ll see what I can do.’
He found Basil Chester only too ready to talk, eager to urge his point of view.
‘This business is being just hellish. Mother’s hopeless—prejudiced, narrow-minded. If only she’d let herself, she’d see how fine Betty is.’
‘And Betty?’
He sighed.
‘Betty’s being damned difficult! If she’d just conform a bit—I mean leave off the lipstick for a day—it might make all the difference. She seems to go out of her way to be—well—modern—when Mother’s about.’
Mr Parker Pyne smiled.
‘Betty and Mother are two of the dearest people in the world, I should have thought they would have taken to each other like hot cakes.’
‘You have a lot to learn, young man,’ said Mr Parker Pyne.
‘I wish you’d come along and see Betty and have a good talk about it all.’
Mr Parker Pyne accepted the invitation readily.
Betty and her sister and her husband lived in a small dilapidated villa a little way back from the sea. Their life was of a refreshing simplicity. Their furniture comprised three chairs, a table and beds. There was a cupboard in the wall that held the bare requirements of cups and plates. Hans was an excitable young man with wild blond hair that stood up all over his head. He spoke very odd English with incredible rapidity, walking up and down as he did so. Stella, his wife, was small and fair. Betty Gregg had red hair and freckles and a mischievous eye. She was, he noticed, not nearly so made-up as she had been the previous day at the Pino d’Oro.
She gave him a cocktail and said with a twinkle:
‘You’re in on the big bust-up?’
Mr Parker Pyne nodded.
‘And whose side are you on, big boy? The young lovers—or the disapproving dame?’
‘May I ask you a question?’
‘Certainly.’
‘Have you been very tactful over all this?’
‘Not at all,’ said Miss Gregg frankly. ‘But the old cat put my back up.’ (She glanced round to make sure that Basil was out of earshot) ‘That woman just makes me feel mad. She’s kept Basil tied to her apron strings all these years—that sort of thing makes a man look a fool. Basil isn’t a fool really. Then she’s so terribly pukka sahib.’
‘That’s not really such a bad thing. It’s merely “unfashionable” just at present.’
Betty Gregg gave a sudden twinkle.
‘You mean it’s like putting Chippendale chairs in the attic in Victorian days? Later you get them down again and say, “Aren’t they marvellous?”’
‘Something of the kind.’
Betty Gregg considered.
‘Perhaps you’re right. I’ll be honest. It was Basil who put my back up—being so anxious about what impression I’d make on his mother. It drove me to extremes. Even now I believe he might give me up—if his mother worked on him good and hard.’
‘He might,’ said Mr Parker Pyne. ‘If she went about it the right way.’
‘Are you going to tell her the right way? She won’t think of it herself, you know. She’ll just go on disapproving and that won’t do the trick. But if you prompted her—’
She bit her lip—raised frank blue eyes to his.
‘I’ve heard about you, Mr Parker Pyne. You’re supposed to know