Read The Hothouse by the East River for Free Online Page B

dear,’ the Princess says. ‘Mrs Hazlett’s own doctor is on his way
to see you.’
    ‘I feel
bad,’ Delia shouts. ‘Lousy, like my head falls off.’
    ‘Let
her go home,’ says Paul. He moves closer and is staring at his wife who,
kneeling with her back to him, is now attempting to remove the effects of cream
from the carpet.
    ‘Give
her some water,’ Paul says, still staring down towards his wife’s behind.
    ‘I
don’t want no more lousy water,’ Delia screams. The Princess grips Delia’s
wrists in her expert way. ‘Paul, don’t just stand there,’ she says, ‘staring
like that. It isn’t Elsa’s fault. Get some brandy for the poor girl. She’s
going to have another brainstorm.’
    Delia,
however, for a while subsides. Paul says, ‘Elsa, there’s something on the soles
of your shoes.’
    Elsa
goes on doing what she is doing.
    ‘Did
you know,’ says Paul, ‘that there’s writing on the soles of your shoes?’
    Elsa
giggles.
    ‘Take
them off. Give them to me.’
    The
doorbell rings. ‘That’s Garven,’ says Elsa. ‘Go and let him in.’
    But
Paul has got down on the floor beside her. He grasps an ankle which overturns
her. Then he starts to pull off her shoes. They are fixed by straps and will not
wrench off. Elsa kicks mightily, the shadows of her legs waving in his face,
whereas by right they should be waving in her own.
    ‘Lousy
devils!’ Delia shouts, as she has never done on any other day in all her six
years with them. ‘Answer that door! I got to talk to a doctor.’ The bell
pierces long.
    The
Princess heaves to her feet and hugging her folds paddles off to admit Garven
with whom she returns, whispering heavily to him.
    Paul
has got one of Elsa’s shoes off and is trying to unstrap the other while Elsa,
lying back among the broken china, tugs his black and grey hair. Delia, supine
on the sofa, growls through her lower teeth.
    Garven
surveys the scene with satisfied disapproval.
    ‘What’s
your problem?’ he says.
    Elsa
looks over to the east window and starts to laugh. Paul gets the other shoe
off.
    ‘Take
it easy,’ says Garven, helping Elsa to her feet. He goes over to Paul who is
examining the soles of the shoes under the light of a lamp. Garven murmurs,
‘Was she kicking? Did she have a fit?’
    Paul
does not look up. ‘The maid fainted or something. Go and do something for her.’
    ‘I have
to know,’ Garven says, ‘what exactly
    Elsa
has done. We may have reached a crisis.
    Elsa
brushes past them, in her stocking feet, carrying away the tea-tray of wreckage
in a businesslike manner.
    Garven
goes over to the maid whose eyes are now shut, her hand held by the Princess.
    ‘Now
what’s the trouble?’ says Garven with a policeman’s authority.
    ‘The
girl’s had a fit of nerves. She dropped the tray. Elsa was sitting over there
quite calmly.’
    ‘It’s
too hot in here,’ Garven says. ‘Stiffing. Can’t you turn down your heating?’ He
feels the girl’s head, but his eyes are on Paul. ‘Elsa called me,’ he says.
    ‘I
know,’ says the Princess. ‘Paul arrived later, didn’t you Paul?’
    ‘This
is in code,’ says Paul, coming over to the Princess with the under-soles of
Elsa’s shoes held out to her. ‘It’s a means of communication for secret work.
You mark a pair of new shoes in a certain way, practically invisible until they
are worn in the street. When the soles get dirty the markings show up and you
can read the message. There’s writing on the soles of these shoes — can you
read it?’
    Three
rows of faint white scratchings can be seen on each of the under-soles.
    The
Princess says, ‘My spectacles are in my bag, Paul. Let Mr Garven deal with this
poor girl.’
    Garven
is over by the north window where the main radiator is. He is trying to turn
off the control knob which is already turned off as far as it will go. He lays
his hands on the very hot radiator. ‘These old apartment houses,’ he says.
    ‘Mr
Garven,’ says the Princess,