The Only Problem Read Online Free PDF

years. It still amazed her to find
herself here with him. That he was perfectly complacent about the arrangement,
even cheerful and happy, did not surprise her so much; everything around him,
she knew — all the comings and goings — were really peripheral to his
preoccupation with the Book of Job. But her being there, with Effie’s
baby, astonished her sometimes to the point of vertigo. This was not at all
what she had planned when she decided to turn up at the cottage with Effie’s
baby daughter.
    Once,
after she had settled in, she said to Harvey, ‘I didn’t plan this.’
    ‘It
wasn’t a plan,’ said Harvey, ‘it was a plot.’
    ‘I
suppose it looks like that from the outside,’ Ruth said. To her, what she had
wanted was justice. Given Effie’s character, it was not to be expected that she
would continue to live with Ernie Howe on his pay in a small house. Ruth had
offered to take the baby when Effie decided she wasn’t in love with Ernie any
more. Harvey’s money would perhaps not have made much difference to Effie’s
decision. At any rate, Ruth had known that, somehow, in the end, she would have
to take on Effie’s baby. It rather pleased her.
    Effie
was trying to sue Harvey for alimony, so far without success.
    ‘The
lawyers are always on the side of the money,’ she said. Harvey continued to
ignore her letters.
     
     
    The baby, named Clara, had
been born toward the end of June. Effie went back to her job in advertising for
a short while after she had left Ernie Howe. Then she took a job with an
international welfare organisation in Rome. Ernie wasn’t at all happy, at
first, with Ruth’s plan to take the baby Clara to visit Harvey. They sat in the
fl at in Pimlico where Ernie often came, now, for consolation, as much as to
see his daughter.
    ‘He
doesn’t sound the sort of man to have any sent-y-ments,’ Ernie said.
    Edward
wanted very much to give Ernie some elocution lessons to restore his voice to
the plain tones of his origins. ‘He hasn’t any sentimentality, but of course he
has sentiments,’ said Edward.
    ‘Especially
about his wife’s baby by a, well, a lover.’
    ‘As to
that,’ said Edward, ‘he won’t care who the father is. He just won’t have any
sentimental feelings, full stop.’
    ‘It’s a
matter of justice,’ Ruth said.
    ‘How do
you work that out?’ said Nathan.
    ‘Well,
if it hadn’t been for Harvey leaving Effie she would never have had a baby by Ernie,’
Ruth said. ‘Harvey should have given her a child. So Harvey’s responsible for
Clara; it’s a question of justice, and with all his riches it would be the best
thing if he could take responsibility, pay Effie her alimony. He might even
take Effie back.’
    ‘Effie
doesn’t want to go back to Harvey Gotham,’ said Ernie.
    ‘Harvey
won’t take her back,’ Edward said. ‘He believes that Effie boils down to money.
    ‘Alas,
he’s right,’ said Ernie.
    ‘Why
can’t Clara go on living with us?’ said Nathan, who already knew how to prepare
the feeds and bath the baby.
    ‘I’m
only taking her for a visit,’ Ruth said. ‘What’s wrong with that? You went to
see Harvey, Edward. Now I’ll have a try.’
    ‘Be
sure to bring her back, Ree-uth,’ said Ernie. ‘The legal position —’
    ‘Do you
still want to marry Effie?’ Edward asked him.
    ‘No,
quite frankly, I don’t.’
    ‘Effie’s
so beautiful,’ Nathan said. He got up to replenish the drinks. ‘What a
beautiful girl she is!’
     
     
    ‘A matter of justice. A
balancing of accounts.’ This was how Ruth put it to Harvey. ‘I’m passionate
about justice,’ she said.
    ‘People
who want justice,’ Harvey said, ‘generally want so little when it comes to the
actuality. There is more to be had from the world than a balancing of accounts.’
    She
supposed he was thinking of his character Job, as in fact he was. She was used
to men answering her with one part of their mind on religion. That was one of
the reasons why Edward