The Good Apprentice Read Online Free PDF Page A

did not look up at Harry but simply thrust the edge of the bowl against his hand. Harry was used to Meredith and fond of him, he appreciated his reticent style, he even imagined they had something of a secret understanding. ’No thanks, Meredith. Is it fun being a teenager?‘
    ‘Not much. There are salted almonds if you’d rather.’
    ‘No thanks. Are you looking forward to boarding school?’
    ‘No.’
    ‘Have some more of the mixture,’ said Thomas. They were drinking a blend of white port with Carpano and Noilly Prat with liberally added apple juice. Such gluey aperitifs, concocted by himself, were drunk, sometimes under protest, by Thomas’s guests.
    Meredith, who was never called ‘Merry’, was distinguished by a red wine-coloured birthmark upon his cheek, referred to by his father as ‘the sign of Dionysus’. Everyone continually told him how attractive it was. What Meredith thought was not known.
    Ursula Brightwalton came in. She was wearing a long stiff black satin evening skirt which made a noise like a small saw, and an old and visibly shabby Chinese jacket embroidered with dragons. As she often announced, she always dressed hastily in something easy. Her dark greying hair was cut in a sensible bob, and her clever thoughtful eyes peered merrily at the world. Her smirking facetious garrulous manner deceived only some. She was a handsome woman who usually looked like what she was, an able and popular general practitioner. Thomas had known her for a considerable time in a medical context (where they did not always agree) and more recently Willy had attracted Edward into his college. Ursula and Willy had a brilliant son Giles, a little older than Stuart, who was away winning extra laurels at an American university, where Willy was about to visit him.
    ‘Hello, Thomas, hello, Harry. What a frightful smell of flowers in here. Shouldn’t you open a window? People think flowers are good for them like they think sunlight is, a great mistake. Good evening, Meredith, you’ve grown. Hasn’t he got a grown-up look? What a fine suit you’re wearing, all you need is a waistcoat and a watch chain. With a strawberry birthmark and a name like Meredith McCaskerville you can conquer the world. You’ll be Prime Minister. Don’t you think?’
    Meredith ignored this sally.
    ‘Such a soldierly child,’ said Ursula to Thomas, ‘so upright and self-contained. What does he want to do now when he grows up?’
    ‘He thinks now,’ said Thomas, ‘that he’d like to be an aeronautical engineer. He wants to reintroduce airships.’
    ‘He’ll make a fortune. And how are you, Harry dear?’
    ‘How do you think, with all this. In general I’m resting, like an actor.’
    ‘You are an actor, you always were. What a pity you didn’t get into politics, you could have used up all that restless ambition. Midge and Willy are in control in the kitchen, they don’t need me, can’t I have a drink, I’ve had a terrible day, whisky please, Thomas, not your sugary mixture. Isn’t Midge looking lovely in that new dress? No wonder she was voted London’s best-dressed woman.’
    Going to the drinks Thomas said, ‘She never made it to best-dressed woman, she was only a runner-up.’
    ‘He always puts her down,’ Ursula murmured to Harry.
    Meanwhile Meredith, picking up the salted almonds, was offering both bowls with outstretched hands to Edward. Edward, still in his corner, had shrunk as if in the process of some biological change, into a small animal. His lean head had become narrower and descended into a hole between his skinny shoulders, and he had drawn his long legs in against the chair. He clasped the book hard against his chest. His grieving mouth enacted a jerky smile like a little paroxysm and he shook his head. Meredith put the bowls down on the carpet and lightly caressed the sleeve of Edward’s jacket; then he picked them up again and placed them on the table and left the room.
    Ursula now noticed Edward. She