In High Places (43 page)

Bonar Deitz was on his feet. 'Mr Speaker, on a question of privilege, I object...' Behind him were other heated, protesting cries.

Amid the growing din Harvey Warrender ploughed determinedly on. 'I say let us ignore the phony sentimentalities and consider the law alone. The law has been served...' His words were drowned out in a rising tide of angry shouts.

One voice persisted above the rest. 'Mr Speaker, will the Minister of Immigration define what he means by human garbage?' Uneasily, James Howden recognized the question's source. It had come from Arnold Geaney, a back-bench Opposition member who represented one of the poorer districts of Montreal.

There were two notable things about Arnold Geaney. He was a cripple, only five feet tall, with a partially paralysed and twisted body, and a face so uniquely ugly and misproportioned as to suggest that nature had conspired against him to produce a human freak. And yet, despite his incredible handicap, he had carved a notable career as a parliamentarian and champion of down-trodden causes. Personally, Howden had an intense dislike for the man, believing him to be an exhibitionist who traded shamelessly upon his physical deformity. At the same time, well aware that popular sympathy was all too ready to be on the side of a cripple, the Prime Minister was invariably wary of tangling with Arnold Geaney in debate.

Now Geaney demanded again, 'Will the Minister define the words "human garbage"?'

The muscles of Harvey Warrender's face were twitching once more. James Howden envisaged the answer which, in un-considered haste, the Immigration Minister might make: 'No one is in a better position than the honourable member to know exactly what I mean.' At all costs, Howden decided, that kind of rejoinder must be prevented.

Rising, the Prime Minister declared above the shouts and counter-shouts, 'The honourable member of Montreal East is placing an emphasis upon certain words which I am perfectly sure my colleague did not intend.'

'Then let him say so!' Geaney, raising himself awkwardly on crutches, hurled the words across the centre aisle. Around him there were supporting shouts and cries, 'Withdraw! Withdraw!' In the galleries people were craning forward.

'Order! Order!' It was the Speaker, his voice barely heard above the din.

'I withdraw nothing!' Harvey Warrender was shouting wildly, his face flushed hotly, his bull neck bulging. 'Nothing, do you hear!'

Again the clamour. Again the Speaker's cries for order. This was a rare parliamentary occasion, Howden realized. Only some deep-rooted division or a question of human rights could arouse the House in the way that had happened today.

'I demand that the minister be made to answer.' It was still the persistent, penetrating voice of Arnold Geaney.

'Order! The question before the House...' At last the Speaker was succeeding in making himself heard. On the Government side the Prime Minister and Harvey Warrender resumed their seats in deference to the chair. Now from all quarters the shouts were dying. Only Arnold Geaney, swaying on his crutches, continued to defy the Speaker's authority.

'Mr Speaker, the Minister of Immigration has spoken to this House of human garbage. I demand...'

'Order! I would ask the member to resume his seat.'

'On a question of privilege ...'

'If the member will not resume his seat, I shall be obliged to name him.'

It was almost as. if Geaney were courting censure. Standing orders, the rules of the House, were definite that when the Speaker stood, all others must give way. In this case there had been reinforcement by a specific order. If Geaney continued in defiance, some form of disciplining would become essential.

'I will give the honourable member one more opportunity,' the Speaker warned sternly, 'before I name him.'

Arnold Geaney said defiantly, 'Mr Speaker, I am standing for a human being three thousand miles from here, contemptuously referred to by this Government as "garbage"...'

The pattern, James Howden suddenly perceived, was perfectly simple. Geaney the cripple was seeking to share the martyrdom of Duval the stowaway. It was an adroit, if cynical, political manoeuvre which Howden must prevent.

Standing, the Prime Minister interjected, 'Mr Speaker, I believe this matter can be resolved ...' He had already decided that on behalf of the Government he would withdraw the offensive words, whatever Harvey Warrender might feel...

Too late.

Ignoring the Prime Minister, the Speaker pronounced firmly, 'It is my unpleasant duty to name the honourable member for Montreal East.'

Infuriatingly aware that he had lost the gambit, James Howden sat down.

The formalities followed swiftly. The Speaker's naming of a member of the House was a measure rarely resorted to. But when it occurred, disciplinary action by the remaining members became automatic and inevitable. Authority of the Speaker must, above all things, be upheld. It was the authority of Parliament itself, and of the people, won by centuries of struggle...

The Prime Minister passed a two-word note to Stuart Cawston, leader of the House. The words were 'minimum penalty'. The Finance Minister nodded.

After a hurried consultation with the Postmaster General behind him, Cawston rose. He announced, 'In view of your decision, Mr Speaker, I have no alternative but to move, seconded by the Postmaster General, Mr Gold: "That the honourable member for Montreal East be suspended for the duration of this day's sitting."'

Unhappily the Prime Minister observed that the press gallery was once again crowded. Tonight's TV and radio news, as well as a headline for the morning papers, was in the making.

It took twenty minutes for a recorded vote on Cawston's motion. The balloting was 131 for, 55 against. The Speaker announced formally, 'I declare the motion carried.' There was silence in the House.

Carefully, wavering on his crutches, Arnold Geaney rose. Deliberately, step by awkward step, he swung his distorted body and misshapen features past the Opposition front benches into the centre aisle. To James Howden, who had known Geaney in the House of Commons for many years, it seemed that the other man had never moved more slowly. Facing the Speaker, with a pathetic awkwardness, the cripple bowed and for a moment it seemed as if he might fall forward. Then, recovering, he turned, retreated slowly the length of the House, then turned and bowed again. As he disappeared through the chamber's outer doors, held wide by the sergeant at arms, there was an audible sigh of relief.

The Speaker said quietly, 'The Minister of Citizenship and Immigration has the floor.'

Harvey Warrender - a shade more subdued than before -continued where he had left off. But James Howden knew that whatever happened now could only be anticlimatic. Arnold Geaney had been justly expelled, for a few hours only, for a flagrant breach of House of Commons rules. But the Press would make the most of the story, and the public, not knowing or caring about rules of debate, would see two underprivileged men - the cripple and the friendless stowaway - as victims of a harsh, despotic Government.

For the first time Howden wondered how much longer the Government could afford to lose popularity, as had happened since the coming of Henri Duval.

Chapter 3
Brian Richardson's note had said: 'Expect me at seven.'

At five minutes to, Milly Freedeman, nowhere near ready and stepping drippily from her bath, hoped he would be late.

Milly often wondered with vague incuriosity why it was that she, who managed her office life - and James Howden's - with machine-like efficiency, almost never carried the same process through to her life at home. On Parliament Hill she was punctual to the second; at home, seldom so. The Prime Minister's office suite was a model of orderliness, including neatly arranged cupboards, and a file system from which, in seconds Milly could whisk a five-year-old handwritten letter from an obscure individual whose name had long since been forgotten. But at the moment, typically, she was rummaging through untidy bedroom drawers in search of an elusive fresh brassiere.

She supposed - when she bothered thinking about it - that her own mild disorganization out of office time was an inner rebellion against having her private life affected by outside habits or pressures. She had always been rebellious, even perverse at times, about extraneous affairs, or the ideas of others which spilled over, embroiling her personally.

Nor had she liked others planning her own future, even when the planning was well-intentioned. Once, when Milly had been in college at Toronto, her father had urged her to follow him into the practice of law. 'You'd be a big success, Mill,' he had predicted. 'You're clever and quick, and you've the kind of mind which can see straight to the heart of things. If you wanted to, you could run rings around men like me.'

Afterwards she reasoned: if she had thought of it herself she just might have followed through. But she had resented -even from her own father, whom she loved - the implication that her personal, private decisions could be made by someone other than herself.

Of course, the whole idea was a contradiction. You could never live a wholly independent existence, any more than you could separate your private and your office lives completely. Otherwise, Milly thought, as she found the brassiere and put it on, there would have been no love affair with James Howden, and no Brian Richardson coming here tonight.

But should there be? Should she have allowed Brian to come? Wouldn't it have been better if she had been firm at the beginning, insisting that her private life remain inviolate: the private life she had carefully created since the day she learned finally that there was no future for herself and James Howden together?

She stepped into a pair of panties, and again the questions troubled her.

A self-contained private life, reasonably happy, was worth a good deal. With Brian Richardson was she running the risk of losing her hard won contentment and gaining nothing in return?

It had taken time - a good deal of time after the break with James Howden - to adjust her outlook and mode of living to the permanence of being alone. But because (Milly imagined) of her deep-rooted instinct for solving personal problems unaided, she had adjusted to the point where her life nowadays was content, balanced, and successful.

Quite genuinely, Milly no longer envied - as she once had -married girlfriends with their protective pipe-smoking husbands and sprawling children. Sometimes, in fact, the more she saw of them all, the more boring and routine their lives appeared compared with her own independence and freedom.

The point was: were her feelings for Brian Richardson inclining her back towards thoughts of conventional involvement?

Opening the bedroom closet door, Milly wondered what she should wear. Well, on Christmas Eve, Brian had said she looked sexy in pants ... She selected a pair of bright green slacks, then searched through the drawers again for a white, low-necked sweater, she left her feet bare, slipping them into slim white sandals. When she had the slacks and sweater on and the light make-up she always wore, day or evening, it was already ten past seven.

She ran her hands through her hair, then decided she had better brush it after all, and went hurrying to the bathroom.

Looking in the mirror, she told herself: There is nothing, absolutely nothing to be concerned about. Yes, if I am honest I could fall in love with Brian, and perhaps I have already. But Brian is unavailable, and he wants it that way. So no question arises.

But there is a question, her mind insisted. What will it be like afterwards? When he has moved on. When you are alone again.

For a moment Milly stopped. She remembered how it had been nine years earlier. The empty days, desolate nights, the long weeks creeping ... She said aloud: 'I don't think I could go through that again.' And silently: Perhaps, after all, I should end it tonight.

She was still remembering when the downstairs buzzer sounded.

Brian kissed her before he took off his heavy overcoat. There was a slight stubble on his face and a smell of tobacco. Milly had a sense of weakness, of resolve vanishing. I want this man, she thought; on any terms. Then she remembered her thought of a few minutes earlier: Perhaps I should end it tonight.

'Milly, doll,' he said quietly, 'you look terrific.'

She eased away, looking at him. Then, concernedly, 'Brian, you're tired.'

'I know.' He nodded. 'And I need a shave. And I just came from the House.'

Not really caring at this moment, she asked, 'How did it go?'

'You haven't heard?'

She shook her head. 'I left the office early. I didn't turn on the radio. Should I have?'

'No,' he said. 'You'll hear about it soon enough.'

'The debate went badly?'

He nodded gloomily. 'I was in the gallery. I wished I hadn't been. They'll slay us in tomorrow's papers.'

'Let's have a drink,' Milly said. 'You sound as if you need one.'

She mixed martinis, going lightly on the vermouth. Bringing them from the kitchenette, she said almost gaily, 'This will help. It usually does.'

No ending tonight, she thought. Perhaps a week from now, a month. But not tonight.

Brian Richardson sipped his drink, then put it down.

Without preliminary, almost abruptly, he announced, 'Milly, I want you to marry me.'

There was a silence of seconds which seemed like hours. Then, this time softly: 'Milly, did you hear me?'

Tor a minute,' Milly said, 'I could have sworn you asked me to marry you.' The words as she spoke seemed airy, detached, her voice disembodied. She had a sense of light-headedness.

'Don't make a joke of it,' Richardson said gruffly. 'I'm serious.'

'Darling, Brian.' Her voice was gentle. 'I'm not making a joke. Really I'm not.'

He put down his glass and came to her. When they had kissed again, long and passionately, she put her face against his shoulder. There was the tobacco smell still. 'Hold me,' she whispered. 'Hold me.'

'When you get around to it,' he said into her hair, 'you can give me some sort of an answer.'

Every womanly instinct urged her to cry yes. The mood and the moment were made for swift consent. Wasn't this what she had wanted all along? Hadn't she told herself, just a few minutes ago, that she would accept Brian on any terms; and now, unexpectedly, she could have the best terms of all - marriage, permanence...