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words, she said, ‘What rails? Whose
rails?’ It was Effie who first called Edward an actor more than a man of God,
and she probably put the idea in his mind.
    Effie
was doing social work when Ruth got married. The sisters looked very much alike
in their separate features; it was one of those cases where the sum total of
each came out with a difference, to the effect that Effie was extremely
beautiful and Ruth was nothing remarkable; perhaps it was a question of
colouring and complexion. Whatever the reason, everyone looked at Effie in a
special way. Both sisters were fair with the fair-lashed look and faint
eyebrows of some Dutch portraits.
    It was
Edward who introduced Effie to Harvey Gotham. Effie was in the habit of
despising the rich, but she married him. They had a small house in Chelsea and
at first they travelled everywhere together.
    When
Edward became an actor Ruth got a job in a university, teaching twentieth
century history. Edward had a television part which came to an end about the
time Ruth discerned that Effie and Harvey were not getting on. Effie’s young
men-friends from her days of welfare-work were always in her house, discussing
their social conscience. Harvey was often away.
    ‘You’re
sleeping around,’ Ruth said to Effie.
    ‘What
do you mean?’ she said.
    ‘I
know,’ Ruth said.
    ‘What
do you know?’
    Ruth
said, ‘I know all about it.’ What she meant was that she knew Effie.
    ‘You
must be guessing,’ said Effie, very shaken.
    ‘I
know,’ Ruth said, ‘that you’re having affairs. Not one only. Plural.’
    Edward
was still out of a job. They hadn’t any prospect of a holiday that year, but
Effie and Harvey had planned a motoring trip in Italy.
    Ruth
said, ‘Why don’t you get Harvey to invite us to join you on your holiday in
Italy?’
    ‘He
wouldn’t like that,’ she said. ‘Four in the car.
    ‘It’s a
big car.’
    ‘You
couldn’t afford your share,’ said Effie, ‘could you?’
    ‘No,
not all of it.’
    ‘What
all this has to do with my love affairs, real or imagined,’ said Effie, ‘I
really do not know.’
    ‘Don’t
you?’ said Ruth.
    ‘Ruth,’
she said, ‘you’re a blackmailer, aren’t you?’
    ‘Only
in your eyes. In my eyes it is simply that we’re going to come to Italy with
you. Harvey won’t mind the money.’
    ‘Oh,
God,’ she said, ‘I’d rather you went ahead and told him all you know. Think of
all the suffering in the world, the starving multitudes. Can’t you sacrifice a
pleasure? Go ahead and tell Harvey what you know. Your sordid self-interest,
your —’You shock me,’ Ruth said. ‘Stick to the point. Is it likely that I would
go to your husband and say…?’
    They
went on holiday with Effie and Harvey, and they took Ruth’s student, Nathan, as
well. Effie stole two bars of chocolate from the supermarket on the autostrada and Harvey left them abruptly. It was the end of their marriage.
Fortunately Effie had enough money on her to pay for the rest of the trip. It
was a holiday of great beauty. Effie tried to appreciate the pictures in the
art galleries, the fountains in the squares, the ancient monuments and the
Mediterranean abundance, but even basking on the beach she was uneasy.
     
     
    Harvey saw Effie’s
features in Ruth; it struck him frequently that she was what Effie should have
been. It had been that situation where the visitor who came to stay remained to
live. (Harvey had heard of an author who had reluctantly granted an interview
to a young critic, who then remained with him for life. ) The arrangement was
not as uncomfortable as it might have been, for Ruth had claimed and cleared
one of the shacks outside the house, where she spent most of the daytime with
the baby. She was careful to make the changes unobtrusively. Delivery vans
drove up with rugs or with an extra stove, but it was all done in a morning.
Harvey paid for the things. When the baby cried it upset him, but that was
seldom, for Ruth drove off