Wyndham, John – Chocky

The same day Land!s rang me up at the office. He had, he said, been thinking about Matthew, and a number of questions had occurred to him. He suggested that I should have dinner with him one evening. It crossed my mind to ask him if he had heard Matthew on `Today’ that morning, but I had no wish to get involved in a lot of explanation in the middle of a busy day, so I did not mention it. In the circumstances I could scarcely refuse his invitation, and it also occurred to me that he might have thought of a suitable consultant. We agreed to meet at his Club the following Thursday.

I got back to find Mary preparing our dinner with grim resolve and a heavy hand, as she does where she is annoyed. I inquired why.

`Matthew’s been talking to reporters again,’ she said, punishing the saucepan.

`But I told him…’

‘] know,’ she said bitterly. `Oh, it isn’t his fault, poor boy, but it does make me so wild.’

I inquired further.

Reporters, it seemed, was a manner of speaking. There had been only one reporter. Matthew, on his way home, had encountered him at the end of the road. He had asked if he was speaking to Matthew Gore, and introduced himself as the representative of The Hindmere and District Courier. Matthew told him he must speak to his mother first. Oh, of course, agreed the young man, that was only proper, naturally he had called on Mrs Gore to ask her permission. He had been hoping to have a talk with Matthew there at the house, only he had not been at home. But it was very fortunate that they had met like this. They couldn’t really talk, standing here on the corner, though. What about some tea and cakes in the cafe over there? So they had gone to the cafe.

‘You must write to the editor at once. It’s disgusting,’ she told me.

I wrote a suitably indignant letter, without the least hope that it would be paid attention to, but it helped to reduce Mary’s feelings to a mere simmer. father there risk raising the temperature again I didn’t mention Landis’s call.

Wednesday passed without incident, but Thursday made up for it. (*)

I was reading The Times in a full railway compartment, when my eye was caught by a photograph in the copy of The Daily Telegraph held by the man in the opposite seat. Even at a glance it had a quality which triggered my curiosity. I leant forward to take a closer look. Habitual travellers develop an instinct which warns them of such liberties. My vis-a-vis (*) immediately lowered his paper to glare at me as if I were committing trespass and probably worse, and refolded it to present a different page.

The glimpse I had had, brief though it was, disturbed me enough to send me to the Waterloo Station (*) bookstall in search of a Telegraph I could rightfully, read. They had, of course, sold out. This somehow helped to convince me that my suspicions were we]l founded, and on arriving in Bloomsbury Square (*) I lost no time in sending a message round the office asking for a copy of today’s Telegraph. Eventually one was found, and brought to me. I unfolded it with a sense of misgiving – and I was right to feel it…

Half a page was devoted to photographs of pictures on display at an exhibition entitled `Art and the Schoolchild’. The one that had caught my eye on the train caught it again. It was a scene from an upper window showing half a dozen boys laden with satchels jostling their way towards an open gate in a wall. The boys had an angular, spindly look; curious to some no doubt, but familiar to me. I had no need to read the print beneath the photograph, but I did:

‘“Homeward” by Matthew Gore (12) of Hinton School, Hindmere, reveals a talent and power .of observation quite outstanding in one of his age.’

I was still looking at it when Tommy Percell, one of my partners came in, and glanced over me shoulder.

‘Ah, yes,’ he to]d me. `Spotted that on the way up this morning. Congratulations. Thought it must be your youngster. Didn’t know he’d a gift for that kind of thing. Very clever – but a bit queer, though, isn’t it?’

‘Yes,’ I said, with a feeling that the thing was slipping out of my hands. `Yes, it is a bit queer …’

Landis drank half his sherry at a gulp.

‘Seen the papers?’ he inquired.

I did not pretend to misunderstand him.

:Yes, I saw today’s Telegraph.’ 1 admitted.

‘But not the Standard? They’ve got it, too – with a paragraph about a child-artist of genius. You didn’t tell me about this,’ he added, with reproach.

‘I didn’t know about it when I last saw you.’

‘Nor about the swimming?’

‘It hadn’t happened then.’

‘Both Chocky, of course?’

‘Apparently,’ I said.

I told him what Matthew had told Mary and me about the pictures. It did not appear to surprise him, but he was lost in thought again…

Over the meal he inquired in detail into the swimming incident. I told him as much as could, and he clearly found it no less significant than the painting. What astonished me most of the time, and still more on later reflection, was his lack of surprise. It was so marked that I almost had a suspicion for a time that he might be humouring me – leading me on to see how far I would go in my claims for Matthew, but I had to abandon that. I could detect no trace of scepticism; he appeared to accept the fantastic without prejudice.

After dinner, over coffee and brandy, Landis said:

‘As I expect you’ll have gathered, (*) I’ve been giving the problem considerable thought, and in my opinion Thorbe is your man. Sir William Thorbe. He’s a very sound fellow with great experience – and not bigoted, which is something in our profession. He treats his cases on their merits – if he decides analysis will help, then he’ll use it; if he thinks it calls for one of the new drugs, then he’ll use that. He has a large number of quite remarkable successes to his credit. I don’t think you could do better than to get his opinion, he’s willing to take Matthew on. I’m certain that if anyone can help it’s Thorbe.’

I did not greatly care for that `if anyone’, but let it pass. I said:

‘I seem to remember that the last time we met you were doubtful whether Matthew needed help. ‘

‘My dear fellow, I still am. But your wife does, you know. And you yourself could do with (*) some definite assurance, couldn’t you?’

And, of course, he was right. Mary and I were a lot more worried about Matthew than Matthew was about himself. Just the knowledge that we were doing our best for him by taking competent advice would relieve our minds.

In the end I agreed that, on Mary’s consent, I would be glad to have Sir William Thorbe’s opinion.

And on that, we parted.

I arrived home to find Mary bursting with indignation. I gathered she had seen The Evening Standard.

‘It’s outrageous!’ she announced. `What right had she to send the thing in without even consulting us? The least she could have done was to ask us. To enter it like that without your even knowing! Really, the kind of people these Teachers’ Training Colleges turn out these days… No manners at all… How can you expect a child to learn decent behaviour when he’s taught by people who don’t know how to behave…? It’s quite disgraceful.’

‘She was doing her job,’ I cut in. `One of her pupils produced a picture that she thought good enough to submit for this exhibition. She wanted him to have the credit for it. Naturally, she thought we’d be delighted, and so we should have been – but for this Chocky business.’

‘She ought to have asked our consent…’

‘So that you could explain to her about Chocky, and tell her why we didn’t want it shown? And, anyway, it was right at the end of the term. She probably had just time to send it in before she went away. I wouldn’t mind betting that at this very moment she’s expecting to receive a letter of thanks and congratulations from is.’

Mary made an angry sound.

‘All right,’ I told her. ‘You go ahead and write the headmaster a letter demanding an apology. And you won’t get your apology. What are you going to do then, make a row? Local newspapers love rows between parents and schoolteachers. So do the national ones. If you want more publicity for the picture than they have already printed you’ll certainly get it. And somebody’s going to point out that the Matthew Gore who painted the picture is the same one who is the guardian angel hero. – Someone’s going to do that anyway, but do we want it done on a national scale? How long will it take before Chocky is right out of the bag?’

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