The Concert Read Free Page B

imagining that anything could be more serious, for she’d been brought up in a family where the wives were always the source of any complications,
    A wave of toasts swept round the table.
    â€œWell, whatever it is, you shouldn’t hide things from me,” said Silva, leaning her head briefly on her brother’s shoulder.
    She was getting more and more anxious about him.
    He turned towards her, and the look of pain in his eyes struck her like an electric shock.
    â€œI’ll tell you if you insist,” he said, “though I’d made up my mind not to talk about it to anyone.”
    He twisted his glass round in his hand, gazing at it as if it were an object of wonder.
    â€œI’m probably, perhaps even certainly, going to be expelled from the Party some time in the next few days,” he said. “And from the army too, needless to say.”
    Silva nearly dropped her fork.
    â€œWhat?” she stammered. “But why?”
    â€œPlease don’t ask any questions. It’s very complicated,"
    â€œBut how is it possible?” she murmured, as if to herself.
    â€œIt’s a very complex business,” he repeated, “And there’s nothing to be done about it. But at least it can’t hurt the rest of you."
    â€œHow could you imagine we’d think of ourselves?” Silva protested, “You ought to be ashamed!”
    He gave a wry smile, stabbing with his fork at a piece of meat that he’d picked up and put down again several times already.
    â€œBut why?” said Silva again. “What’s it all about?”
    Arian stared in silence at his almost untouched plate, as if he expected to see something there that would help him decide whether or not to confide in his sister.
    â€œAs you know, there were some army manoeuvres recently,” he said at last, “Well, in the course of them I disobeyed, or rather refused to obey, an important order.”
    So that’s all, said Silva to herself: at first Mesh it didn’t seem as awful as she’d feared. But her brother went on, as if he’d guessed what she was thinking;
    â€œWhen there’s a war on, that’s enough to put you in front of a firing squad. But as it’s peacetime I shall just be thrown out of the army. And out of the Party too, of course. That’s all. I don’t think there’ll be any other consequences.”
    Silva sighed. But of course …what other consequence could there be? Wasn’t it bad enough already?
    Arian made another attempt to pick something up from his plate, but his fork seemed incapable of dealing with it. Silva felt terribly sorry for him.
    â€œIs anybody else being punished?”
    â€œFour out of the six officers in our unit. All those who refused to obey.”
    He made another stab at his plate, but gave up and refilled his glass.
    â€œSo why did you do it?” asked Silva.
    â€œDo what?”
    â€œThat order — why did you refuse to obey it?”
    He turned his head away abruptly. His eyes were blazing with anger.
    â€œDon’t ask me about it. I shan’t tell you.”
    â€œAll right, all right,” said Silva. “What’s done is done. Don’t torture yourself.”
    He picked up his glass and drank.
    â€œJust one last thing,” Silva went on. “Do you feel guilty about it?”
    â€œAbsolutely not!”
    Silva glanced absently round the table. She couldn’t make up her mind whether his not feeling guilty was a good thing or not.
    â€œForget it now,” he said, raising his glass. “Here’s to alt of you, and to Brikena’s very good health!”
    â€œAnd the same to you!” Silva replied.
    He waved his hand dismissively, as if to say “For me it’s all over — you’d do better to concentrate on other people!”
    Silva set down her glass and looked round at her guests. The dinner party was going on just as it had before her attention was