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Arthur & George

Arthur & George

Titel: Arthur & George Kostenlos Bücher Online Lesen
Autoren: Julian Barnes
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Mam first came here – not that they were ever simple then. For Waller has somehow managed to get himself married. Miss Ada Anderson, a clergyman’s daughter from St Andrews, came to Thornton Vicarage as governess, and, so village gossip asserts, instantly set her cap at the master of Masongill House. She succeeded in marrying the man, only to find – and here gossip turned moralizing – that she could not change him. For the new husband had no intention of letting mere matrimony alter the way of life he had established. To be specific: he visits the Mam as often as he ever did; he dines with her
en tête-à-tête
; and he has a special bell installed at the back door of her cottage, which only he is allowed to ring. The Waller marriage does not bring forth children.
    Mrs Waller never sets foot in Masongill Cottage, and absents herself when the Mam comes to sup at the House. If Waller desires that woman to preside, then so be it, but her authority at the table will not be recognized by the mistress of the house. Mrs Waller increasingly busies herself with her Siamese cats and a rose garden laid out with the rigour of a parade ground or vegetable plot. During a brief encounter with Arthur she showed herself both shy and stand-offish: the fact that he came from Edinburgh and she from St Andrews was no ground for intimacy, her manner suggested.
    And so the four of them – Waller, the Mam, Arthur and Jean – sit round the supper table together. Food is brought and taken away, glasses shine in the candlelight, the talk is of books, and everyone behaves as if Waller were still a bachelor. From time to time, Arthur’s eye is caught by the silhouette of a cat slipping along the wall and keeping well clear of Waller’s boot. A sinuous form, easing its way through the shadows, like the memory of a wife discreetly absenting herself. Does every marriage have its own damn secret? Is there never anything straightforward at the heart of it all?
    Still, Arthur long ago accepted that Waller would have to be endured. And since he cannot be with Jean all the time, he is content to golf with Waller. For a short and scholarly type, the master of Masongill House has a neat enough game. He lacks distance, of course, but is rather tidier, it has to be admitted, than Arthur, who still tends to despatch the ball in improbable directions. Apart from golf, there is decent shooting to be had in Waller’s woods – partridge, grouse and rooks. The two men also go ferreting together. For five shillings the butcher’s boy will arrive with his three ferrets and work them all morning to Waller’s satisfaction, scaring up the contents of numerous rabbit pies.
    But then there are the hours earned by such dutiful endeavour – the hours alone with Jean. They take the Mam’s pony-and-dog cart and drive to nearby villages; they explore the range of wold and fell and sudden valleys north of Ingleton. Though Arthur’s returns here are never uncomplicated – the taint of kidnap and betrayal will always linger – the role of tourist agent comes to him naturally and full-heartedly. He shows Jean the Twiss Valley and Pecca Falls, the gorge of the Doe and Beezley Falls. He watches her nerveless on a bridge sixty feet above Yew Tree Gorge. They climb Ingleborough together, and he cannot prevent himself feeling how good it is for a man to have a healthy young woman at his side. He is making no comparison, impugning nobody, just grateful that they do not have to make constant frustrating halts and rests. At the top, he plays archaeologist and points out the vestiges of the Brigantian stronghold; then topographer as they look west towards Morecambe, St George’s Channel and the Isle of Man, while far to the northwest the Lake mountains and the Cumbrian ranges discreetly show themselves.
    Inevitably, there are constraints and awkwardnesses. They may be far from home, but decorum cannot be abandoned; Arthur is, even here, a well-known figure, while the Mam has her position in local society. So a glance is sometimes required to rein in a certain tendency to candour and expressiveness on Jean’s part. And though Arthur is more free to articulate his devotion, he cannot always feel as a lover should – like a man freshly invented. They are driving through Thornton one day, Jean’s arm resting on his, the sun high in the sky and the prospect of an afternoon alone together, when she says,
    ‘What a pretty church, Arthur. Stop, let us go in.’
    He acts

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