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that would come to ... three , carry seven , six
" Clacton's . " " Well , I 'm damned . " " Now , let me see ,
you say your husband earns about ... yes ,
nines are fifty four - of course we 'd have to
Our lawyers - " " Who are your lawyers ? "
have some sort of proof , you know , it 's very
Yes . I 'm afraid we couldn't raise this loan to more
before the green belt , lovely and modern , you know .
Grimstead for three thousand , that 's where I live , just
house built earlier than 1918 . "
could get quite a nice little semi-detached house in
I forgot to tell you , we don't usually lend any
than three thousand three fifty at the most . Now you
and some in West Hampstead for four two fifty ,
had gone , " we can get three thousand three fifty ,
a bit . I 'm sure you could raise the rest from
and write them later . I 've got a bit owing too .
perhaps a little more if we can cheat your earnings
Now , I saw some flats in Hendon for four thou ,
" You see , " she propounded to Rupert after her last patient
our own bathroom .
one of your publishers , get two books commissioned
two beds , two reception , k. and b. , just think ,
Much more spacious than that poky little cottage ,
reception room was too small when divided
and too big when not .
which wasn't a bit practical really , the
Vence is a sober spot , half way between small
tree-heavy square you can sit in the autumn
sip pastis and read the local newspapers .
sunshine , still burning like a half-cooled iron ,
town and village , pigeon grey , sly with arches , and
linked by a whispering plot of fountains . In the main
had firmly closed the door in our noses .
hunting for furnished rooms , and had given up , when an
is a smart but modest bar called Pierre's Bar . For one
elderly lady , the owner of a residence called the Poet's Nest ,
of our arrival it was throwing huge over-ripe verbal
tomatoes at General de Gaulle . One side of this square
day , with the help of the Syndicat d'Initiative , we had been
One called La Patriote is Communist , and at the time
she decided Pierre would solve our problems . This
yellow as lemon peel , wrestling with some gnawing rat
a good address . ' Now , after a woman's radar look ,
accumulation of money .
was true , Pierre was a true Provenc*?6al , thin and
of an illness , man of all trades , married to a commanding
lady who loved small talk and the discreet
' It is a pity , ' said Mart , ' because it would have been
month . ' Yes , ' we said immediately , even before viewing .
elderly , well-off , artistic , who , you felt , had made a hard
We went in . There were a few people in the bar ,
Pierre , ' and all mod cons . ' The price was 16,000 francs a
bargain for giving up . ' I have furnished rooms , ' said
We were shown around by Pierre .
We were woken up twice about dawn by a soft
first night's sleeping was like a long convalescence .
The flat was on the third floor ; two rooms ; soft Provenc*?
6al view ; good intimate furnishing and colour ; running
hot water from Butagas installation for washing-up ,
eruption of turtle-doves .
basin and bidet ; own private , modern lavatory . The
shame .
curling white breath of the mountains . The land looked
' turtledove ' . Pierre Turtledove . When we woke up properly it
looked out of the windows at the weeping trees and the
This was strange , even magic , because the owner's
name was Pierre Tortorolo which , in Nicoison Italian means
like a beaten woman and the turtle-doves cried her
was raining , an even more hopeless rain than London , and we
We had a morning at Pierre's . He talked about people .
immolated on a nearby roof top , the other pair copulating .
The Lover of Lady Chatterly .
Four of them were flattened on the window sills , two
four years . During this period he wrote a book ,
There they were , in fact , below us , eight of them .
Marc Chagall used to live here and an Englishman named
Lawrence . He was here , near the railway station , three or
sat in the square reading the Patriote .
sun came out ; Mart went shopping ; I
him , he was one of the crowd . The
reading . Lawrence died in this very place .
No , he hadn't read it ; Madame did all the
again . No , he couldn't really remember
He used to come to Pierre's Bar again and
There was a front-page rear-attack on de
ingenious , but mad film director of the
Raphael . All the murders were well documented
Thirties .
the Mediterranean between Corsica and St
Gaulle , and the rest of the paper was given up
to murders , apart for an outcry against a
and had the air of being written by an
proposal to drop radio-active material into
Monsieur H , for instance , had been clubbed and
Then again , Monsieur V , owing to family
before the father-in-law telephoned the police .
father-in-law , after muddling up some sheep
They mostly occurred in lonely farm-houses .
while the worse for drink . The family