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She was normally a
documentary producer. They went to have a drink.
    ‘They
are talking about this artist character’s retiring,’ said Hurley. ‘All wrong.
Artists don’t retire. There’s nothing for them to retire about.’
    ‘I hope
you told them so,’ said Annabel who admired Hurley. ‘In a way it’s a waste of
your precious time, this advisory job.’
    ‘But I
like to see them do it right,’ Hurley said. ‘In this case, for instance, the
painter is not perpendicular enough. He shouldn’t be shown to look away from
the canvas to talk while his hand is painting with the brush. I like things
done right. Personally, if I were a butler or a valet I would do it right. I
would know how to do it.’
    ‘How
would you know?’ said Annabel. ‘Have you had the experience?’
    ‘Yes,
on the employer’s side,’ Hurley said. ‘Since I’ve been with Chris we’ve always
had a manservant or two.’
    ‘This
is something I’d like to hear more about, for when I do that TV profile of
you,’ said Annabel.
    ‘I’d
rather leave the butler out of it,’ said Hurley. ‘Quite honestly, for an artist
that sort of thing is counter-productive. At the other end of the scale, so is
starvation and garrets. If the public thinks you’re too well off they figure
the art must be superficial, and if you’re poor they think there’s something
wrong with the art, and why doesn’t it sell?’
    But
Annabel was not to be waylaid. She was storing up an idea which she felt would
impress her superiors when it came to persuading them to take on her projected
profile of Hurley. About the observations he had just made, she was not concerned.
(Artist … butler … maybe include rich Australian consort … ) ‘What’s the
name of your butler?’ said Annabel.
    ‘Charterhouse,’
he said.
    ‘I
don’t believe it.’
    ‘Neither
did I,’ he said. ‘But it’s true, it’s on all his papers and references. We only
just hired him.’
    ‘Is he
any good?’
    ‘Perfect.
Except he already talks about wanting a few weeks off in the late fall.’
    ‘Did he
say “fall”?’ said quick Annabel.
    ‘No, he
said, “Autumn, sir.” He wants time off to take his Greek wife back to Greece
where she insists that she has to claim her dowry. I daresay that means twelve
sheets, six pillow-cases. They haven’t been married long, the fools.’
    ‘Do you
think marriage is foolish?’
    Hurley
ignored this. ‘Chris is going to let him go on vacation. But first we’re
counting on him for a few occasions, including a dinner. After that, let him go
to Greece. A small dinner, we thought, rather special.’
    ‘Chris
invited me, I was thrilled,’ said Annabel.
    He
enumerated the list of guests, some of whom she hadn’t met.
    ‘It
sounds charming,’ she said.
    ‘They
will constitute an interesting cocktail,’ Hurley said. ‘That’s what one asks of
a dinner party.’
    ‘And
I’m looking forward to seeing Charter-house,’ Annabel said.
    ‘Nothing
special to see,’ said Hurley. He smiled at Annabel and paid the bill for their
drinks.
    To her
cousin Roland Sykes with whom she had supper that night Annabel said, ‘I hear
you’re going to Chris Donovan’s dinner party.’
    ‘I’ve
been asked. I don’t know if I can manage, ‘he said, as he always said; to the
effect that she took no notice.
    ‘I met
Hurley,’ she said. ‘He told me who’s coming. There’s a newly married couple;
he’s the son of that magnate tycoon woman, Mrs Damien, an Australian; you
remember there was an article about her in one of the Sunday supplements. Her
son got married to a girl called Margaret Murchie from St Andrews. Hurley says
they met in Marks & Spencer’s, the fruit section.’
    ‘Murchie?’
said Roland.
    ‘Well,
it’s an old Scottish name.’
    ‘I
know. From St Andrews, you said?’
    Annabel’s
cousinship to Roland was from the mother’s side, his from the father’s. They
both had brothers and sisters, but Annabel and Roland were much closer