The Stranger Came (22 page)

Had
she let them touch her? Those old gross men?

There
was
no
way
it
seemed
of
controlling
your
thoughts.

'Would
you
fetch
my
briefcase?'
Maitland
asked.

It
was
the
comfortable
time
of
the
evening
to
which
she
looked
forward.
They
had
brought
through
the
percolator
and
the
little
Dutch
cups
–
windmills
4
and
6
of
the
set,
'Gronzeilermolen'
and
'Stellingmolen'
–
to
finish
their
meal
in
front
of
the
living-room
fire.
She
had
been
wondering
if
it
would
be
disloyal
to
tell
Maitland
about
Janet,
but
wondering
with
the
comfortable
certainty
that
she
would,
since
she
told
him
everything.

'You
want
me
to
get
it?'
The
request
puzzled
her.
'But
where
is
it?'

'You
didn't
notice?
I
thought
you
might
have.
I
put
it
down
when
I
came
into
the
hall.’

'And
you
want
me
to
get
it?'

'Please
.’

It
crossed
her
mind
she
was
being
obtuse
and
spoiling some
surprise
he
had
for
her.
The
briefcase
was
lying
on
the
hall
.table.
He
had
a
new
one,
but
still
preferred
this
battered
old
favourite
in
which
he
carried
books
and
papers,
notes
for
talks
and
documents
for
Department
meetings.
There
was
nothing
lying
beside
it:
she
had
thought
of
chocolates;
Maitland
was
fond
of
chocolates.
She
hefted
the
weight
of
the
case.

'I've
poured
coffee,'
Maitland
said.

'Lovely
.’

He
took
the
case
from
her
without
acknowledgement, setting
it
on
his
knee
and
resting
the
delicate
china
cup
upon
it.
She
sipped
her
coffee,
but
the
comfortable
evening
mood
was
spoiled.
She
waited.

'I
had
a
seminar
this
afternoon,'
Maitland
said.
He
scraped
the
edge
of
the
case
with
a
fingernail.
The
sound
affected
her
nerves
unpleasantly.
'A
group
of
bright
young
men
–
and
women.
Bright
young
people.
I
was
reflecting
on
the
Brothers
Grimm.
Would
you
believe,
by
the
way,
that
not
one
of
them
could
name
one
of
Grimms'
folk
tales,
never
mind
having
read
them?
"Cinderella
...?"
was
one
offering.
Thank
God,
we
didn't
sink
to
Donald
Duck.’
And
in
his
eager
American
voice,
'"Was
that
the
guy
who
drew
Snoopy,
sir?"
No,
we're
dealing
with
the
cream
of
their
generation.
It's
just
that
their
generation
hasn't
been
told
about
how
the
fearless
boy
learned
fear
or
about
the
little
girl
who
kept
sticking
her
arm
up
out
of
the
grave
until
they
sent
for
her
mother
who
came
and
whacked
it
down
with
a
stick.
Deprived.
What
do
you
think
they
had
instead?
The
castles
of
Auschwitz
and
Dachau?
Heinrich
Himmler
as
hobgoblin?
The
German
children
of
Grimm.’

'Wouldn't
that
be
our
generation?'

'Ancient
history,
you
mean.
And
what
will
their
children
have?
A
video
of
The Killing Fields
as
a
grotesquerie
for
the
nursery?'

'Poor
things –
after
all,
they
weren't
expecting
a
seminar
on
folk-tales!'
She
laughed
and
felt
better.
Unlike
Janet
and
Ewen
Hayes
their
lives
were
not
separate.

'In
a
way
that
was
the
point.
They
knew
all
about Grimm's
law –
voiceless
stops
and
voiceless
fricatives
and
the
rest
of
it.
Folklore
and
philology
under
the
same
hat –
that's
what
I
wanted
them
to
think
about.
Those
founding
fathers
were
amateurs
in
a
way
it's
not
possible
for
any
of
us
to
be
now.
You
get
that
lovely
sense
of
the
uncluttered
power
of
the
mind,
pure
logical
intellect,
which
only
comes
from
laymen
busy
inventing
their
science.
Hutton
in
geology,
Hugh
Miller
among
his
Old
Red
Sandstone;
the assault
of
non-specialist
reason
upon
the
mysteries
of
nature.’

This
tone
of
the
lecture-room
–
he
had
too
much
of
a
sense
of
humour,
too
much
of
a
sense
of
proportion
for
this.
Uncertainly,
she
returned
his
smile.

'You
might
call
it
innocence.
Who's
been
a
bigger
critic
of
the
military-industrial
complex
than
Noam
Chomsky?
And
yet,'
he
reached
a
book
down
from
the
shelf,
'the
research
for
Aspects of the Theory of Syntax
was
paid
for
by,
let's
see,
"the
Joint
Services
Electronics
Programs
(US
Army,
US
Navy,
and
US
Air
Force)
under
Contract
No.
DA36-039-AMC-03200(E).”
Money
for
science –
yes,
even
linguistics,
I
say
to
them
–
came
from
the
military,
big
money,
in
hopes
of
getting
stuff
that
would
be
useful
against
"the
enemy.”
And
Chomsky
hadn't
been
politicised
yet
by
Vietnam.
No
discredit
to
him.
But
innocence
gets
harder
to
come
by
all
the
time.
And
after
they'd
talked
themselves
out,
I
decided
to
finish
off
by
reading
a
couple
of
items.
You
know
I do
that
–
put
things
in
the
case
to
use
in
a
seminar?'