Read The Great Pursuit for Free Online Page B

of his little suppers. Yes I

think we may be on to something. Piper would do almost anything to get into print and a trip to

the States with all expenses paid...I think we'll drink to that.'
    'Anything is worth trying,' said Sonia. And that night before setting out for Corkadales

Frensic returned to the office and drew up two new contracts. One by which Corkadales agreed to

pay fifty thousand for Pause O Men for the Virgin and the second guaranteeing the publication of

Mr Piper's subsequent novel, Search for a Lost Childhood. The advance on it was five hundred

pounds.
    'After all, it's worth the gamble,' said Frensic as he and Sonia locked the office again, 'and

I'm prepared to put up five hundred of our money if Geoffrey won't play ball on the advance to

Piper. The main thing is to get a copperbottomed guarantee that they will publish Search'
    'Geoffrey has ten per cent of two million at stake too,' said Sonia as they separated. 'I

should have thought that would be a persuasive argument.'
    'I shall do my level best,' said Frensic as he hailed a taxi.
    Geoffrey Corkadale's little suppers were what Frensic in a bitchy moment had once called

badinageries. One stood around with a drink, later with a plate of cold buffet, and spoke lightly

and allusively of books, plays and personalities, few of which one had read, seen or known but

which served to provide a catalyst for those epicene encounters which were the real purpose of

Geoffrey's little suppers. On the whole Frensic tended to avoid them as frivolous and a little

dangerous. They were too androgynous for comfort and besides he disliked running the risk of

being discovered talking glibly on a subject he knew absolutely nothing about. He had done that

too often as an undergraduate to relish the prospect of continuing it into later life. And the

very fact that there were never any women of marriageable propensity, they were either too old or

unidentifiable Frensic had once made a pass at an eminent theatre critic with horrifying

consequences tended to put him off. He preferred parties where there was just the faintest chance

that he would meet someone who would make him a wife and at Geoffrey's gatherings the expression

was taken literally. And so Frensic usually avoided them and confined his sex life to occasional

desultory affairs with women sufficiently in their prime not to resent his lack of passion or

charm, and to passionate feelings for young women on tube trains, which feelings he was incapable

of expressing between Hampstead and Leicester Square. But this evening he came with a purpose,

only to find that the rooms were crowded. Frensic poured himself a drink and mingled in the hope

of cornering Geoffrey. It took some time. Geoffrey's elevation to the head of Corkadales lent him

an appeal he had previously lacked and Frensic found himself subjected to a scrutiny of his

opinion of The Prancing Nigger by a poet from Tobago who confessed that he found Firbank both

divine and offensive. Frensic said those were his feelings too but that Firbank had been

remarkably seminal, and it was only after an hour and by the unintentional stratagem of locking

himself in the bathroom that he managed to corner Geoffrey.
    'My dear, you are too unkind,' said Geoffrey when Frensic after hammering on the door finally

freed himself with the help of a jar of skin cleanser. 'You should know we never lock the boys'

room. It's so unspontaneous. The chance encounter...'
    'This isn't a chance encounter,' said Frensic, dragging Geoffrey in and shutting the door

again. 'I want a word with you. It's important.'
    'Just don't lock it again...oh my God! Sven is obsessively jealous. He goes absolutely

berserk. It's his Viking blood.'
    'Never mind that,' said Frensic, 'we've had Hutchmeyer's offer. It's substantial.'
    'Oh God, business,' said Geoffrey, subsiding on to the lavatory seat. 'How substantial?'
    'Two million dollars,' said