| THE BALKAN TRILOGY |
| OLIVIA MANNING |
| BOOK THREE “Guy was in a jubilant state. He suffered from his own frustrated energy and the challenge of other men’s activity, but now it seemed nothing could daunt him. A sort of electricity went out from him and infected the neighbouring tables, and even the airmen began to talk. They told, in terms of riotous humour, how they were sent every morning to Valona at exactly the same time. It was intended as a double bluff. The Italians were expected to think such tactics impossible and so be unprepared. <But the bastards are expecting us every time> shouted Zipper Cohen, and Surprise, shaking in his chair, said: <Thank God for the Greek airforce. They’ll fly anything. They go up on tea-trays tied with string.> The wine was as much for Guy as for the air-crew. Among the Greeks he was an honorary Greek, among the fighting men, he was an honorary fighting man. Aware that she could not , for the life of her, attract so much enthusiasm, Harriet was moved with pride in him. Now there were six men out dancing and the clapping had settled into a rhythmic accompaniment that filled the room. Unfortunately, while things were at their height, Major Cookson felt he must take his party away. He said to those around that it was all very pleasurable but, alas, he had invited friends to drop in after dinner and must be at Phaleron to greet them. Those with him rose, but not very willingly. Harriet felt Charles Warden look at her as he went, but she kept her eyes on Zipper Cohen.” “The departure of Cohen brought the dancing to a stop. In the silence that came down, Chew Buckle threw back his head and sang to the tune of Clementine: <In a Blenheim, o’er Valona, Every morning just at nine, Same old crew and same old aircraft, Same old target, same old time. ‘Bomb the runaway’ says the Group Captain, ‘And make every one a hit, If you do, you’ll go to Heaven, If you don’t, you’re in the….whatd’ycall it?> Amidst the applause, Buckle climbed slowly and deliberately up on his chair, then to the table where he bowed on every side before sinking down, as slowly as he had risen, and going to sleep among the bottles.” “The sun was low. With her head against the rail, watching the lustrous swell of the sea that held in its depths the hues of emeralds and amethysts, Harriet thought of Charles left behind with the retreating army, of David taken by the enemy, of Sasha become a stranger , of Clarence lost in Salonka, of Alan who would share the fate of the Greeks, and of Yakimov in his grave. Not one of their friends remained except Ben Phipps; the vainest and the emptiest, she thought. It seemed to her there would always be a Phipps, one Phipps or another Phipps, to entice Guy from her into the realms of folly, but Ben Phipps had almost had his day.” “She had once been ambitious for Guy, but saw now the truth of the proverb that the children of darkness were wiser than the children of light.” “If Guy had for her the virtue of permanence, she might have the same virtue for him. To have one thing permanent in life as they knew it was as much as they could expect.” |
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