Are you planning to go back to school?' asked Frances.
'I don't know if they'll have me,' said Jill, with a timid pleading look at Frances, that meant, Will you ask them if they'll have me back?
But where was she going to live?
Have you been in hospital?'
The girl nodded. Then, still in a whisper, ' I've been in there a month. ' That meant, a psychiatric ward, and Frances was intended to understand this. 'Couldn't I just sleep in the sitting-room?'
Andrew, apparently absorbed in Sylvia, encouraging her, laughing with her when she made a joke about her difficulties, was also listening to the exchange between his mother and Jill, and now he caught Frances's eye and shook his head. The thumbs-down could not have been more clear, though it was only a little no, meant to be unobserved. But Jill had seen it. She sat silent, eyes kept down, lips trembling.
' The trouble is, where are we going to put you?' Frances said. And Jill probably would not be able to cope with school, even if Frances could get her admitted. What was to be done?
This sad little drama was going on at Frances's end of the table; at the other it was all noisy good humour. Johnny was telling them about his trip with a delegation of librarians to the Soviet Union, and the jokes were at the expense of the non-Party members, who had made one gaffe after another. One had demanded to be reassured at a meeting in the Union of Soviet Writers that there was no censorship in the Soviet Union. Another had wanted to know if the Soviet Union, ' like the Vatican' , kept an index of forbidden books. I mean, said Johnny, 'that is really an unforgivable level of political naivety.'
Then, there was the recent election that had returned the Labour Party. Johnny had been active: a tricky business, because while on the one hand obviously the Labour Party was a greater threat to the working masses than the Tories (confusing minds with incorrect formulations), on the other, tactical considerations had ordained that it should be supported. James was listening to the ins and outs of this as ifto favourite music. Johnny had greeted him with a comradely nod and a hand laid on his shoulder, but now he was concentrating on the newcomer, still to be won, Franklin. He delivered a short history of the colonial policy towards Zimlia, recounted the crimes of colonial policy in Kenya, with particular relish for whenever Britain had behaved badly, and began exhorting Franklin to fight for the freedom of Zimlia.
'The nationalist movements of Zimlia are not as developed as the Mau Mau, but it is up to young people like you to free your people from oppression.' Johnny had a glass in one hand, the left, and was leaning forward, eyes holding Franklin's, while he shook the forefinger of his right hand at him, as if targeting him with a revolver. Franklin was shifting about, smiling uncomfortably, and then he said, 'Excuse me,' and went out to the toilet as it happened, but it looked like running away, and when he came back he smiled, and handed his plate to Frances for a second helping, and did not look at Johnny, who had been waiting for him to return. Your generation in Africa has more responsibility laid on your shoulders by history than any other has had. How I wish I was young again, how I wish I had it all in front of me.'
'The nationalist movements of Zimlia are not as developed as the Mau Mau, but it is up to young people like you to free your people from oppression.' Johnny had a glass in one hand, the left, and was leaning forward, eyes holding Franklin's, while he shook the forefinger of his right hand at him, as if targeting him with a revolver. Franklin was shifting about, smiling uncomfortably, and then he said, 'Excuse me,' and went out to the toilet as it happened, but it looked like running away, and when he came back he smiled, and handed his plate to Frances for a second helping, and did not look at Johnny, who had been waiting for him to return. Your generation in Africa has more responsibility laid on your shoulders by history than any other has had. How I wish I was young again, how I wish I had it all in front of me.'
And for once his features, usually set into a martial authority, were softened into wistfulness. Johnny was getting on, an ageing fighter now, and how he must hate it, Frances thought, for with every day came news of new younger avatars of the Revolution. Poor Johnny was on the shelf. At the same moment Franklin lifted his glass, in a wild gesture that looked like parody, and said, ' To the Revolution in Africa, ' and fell forward on to the table, out, while Jill got up from the table and said, ' Excuse me, excuse me, I'll go now.'
Do you want to sleep here tonight? There's the sitting-room. James and you can keep each other company. '
Jill stood shaking her head, supporting herself with a hand -as it happened on Frances's arm, and then fainted away, at Frances's feet.
' Here's a carry-on, said Johnny heartily, and watched while Geoffrey and Colin roused Franklin, and held a glass of water to his lips, and Frances lifted up Jill. Rose sat on, eating as if nothing was happening. Sylvia whispered that she wanted to go to bed, and Andrew took her up.