Isolde?”
“She’s only there to exalt Tristan.”
“Brünnhilde?”
“That’s the exception. The only woman he actually makes wiser than the men. Except she ends up dead like the others. At least the music is revolutionary.”
The Countess turned to Isobel. “There, you see? I’ll bet I’ve found out more about her in two minutes than you’ve discovered in all those years at school.”
Isobel gestured to her lips.
“You may speak.”
“I was just going to say that I don’t give a damn about any of those things.”
The Countess frowned. “Why are you wearing that awful suit?”
“This? Because we went to church this morning, Peaches and I.”
“Peaches?”
“That’s her nickname. I gave it to her.”
“But why ever?”
“Because she’s sweet and round and delicious, of course. Just look at her.”
The Countess spun back to study me. She gave the business her whole attention, crossing her left arm under her breasts and propping her right elbow on the knuckles while she sucked thoughtfully on her cigarette. I tried to decide whether she was beautiful or not—certainly her face had the symmetry of beauty, the shapely eyes—but really she was something else. Not handsome or pretty or attractive, something beyond description, so that she held your attention, your dumbstruck admiration, without the slightest effort. Striking, that’s the closest word. You could say she was striking.
As she studied me studying her, she didn’t give any sign of what she was thinking, or what conclusions she drew from whatever figure I presented to her, in my ragged hair and ill-tailored suit and sunburnt face. The cigarette languished and died. She plucked the stub from the holder and tossed it into the ashtray and said to her daughter, “Whatever she is, she’s certainly not Peaches. Are we absolutely certain you’re mine, darling? It’s impossible to believe I’ve borne a daughter with so little penetration.”
Isobel sprang from her chair and stalked to the French doors. “I’m going to take a shower and change clothes. Are you coming, Peaches?”
“She’s not answering to Peaches anymore,” called back the Countess. “I forbid it.”
Isobel didn’t pause, and I rose and followed her, because I did need to bathe and change before dinner, there was no question of that. As I passed the Countess, she took me gently by the elbow.
“Before dinner,” she whispered, “we’ve got to talk.”
17.
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