Manhattan Monologues (25 page)

"It will be like old times," she said, enigmatically.

But it wasn't. Before he had a chance to introduce his rather awkward subject, she drove it from his mind altogether with a startling comment.

"I should tell you right off, Rod, that I always knew why you did what you did with Mrs. Fisk. You knew all about Vinnie and Harry, didn't you?"

"How in God's name did you know that?"

"It was the only thing that made it all add up."

"And did you tell Vinnie or Harry? Did you tell your husband?"

"I didn't tell a soul. I didn't see that it was any of their business. They had their own principles or life styles or what have you. They could work it out for themselves."

"And have they? Have Vinnie and Harry?"

"I think so. In their own way. He's the acting head of the firm, or will be unless you replace him. Which was what he was always after and which he'd never have been had you stayed on. And Vinnie has finally faced—what she must have always suspected—that she had been thoroughly used. Now, she's much less subservient. She knows that if he doesn't give her everything she wants, she can do him a lot of damage. Arnold isn't what he was by any means, but he still carries weight with the older partners and major clients. And Harry knows that. He's no fool. Besides, he still has something of a physical hold over Vinnie. She's a passionate woman, that child of mine, and she hasn't got any prettier with increased avoirdupois. Wait till you see her, which I gather you haven't yet. If she had to get another man today, I'm afraid she'd have to buy one."

Rod was shocked by such detachment. "I take it you're not much drawn to your son-in-law."

"Drawn to him? I detest him."

"Is he aware of that?"

"Probably. As I say, he's no fool. But he's not afraid I'll do anything to harm him. He's smart enough to know that people like me, who have no reserves in their thinking, are the opposite in their acting. They don't care to rock boats. Perhaps it's because truth is enough for them without trying to establish it. Or is it that they see how often action is futile? If they know thought is all, they may also know it's not much."

Rod sighed at such bleakness. Did she have a heart? But, then, did he? Did either of them need one anymore?

"May I ask you, Mrs. Dillard, what you think of my being back in the firm? And the way it's going now?"

"The way it's going?"

"Well, you know your husband always used to turn up his nose at the take-over business. He said it was shyster stuff. Using the courts to bedevil an opponent rather than to gain a sum due or to prevent an injustice. A kind of blackmail, he called it. Give me control or I'll ruin you."

"Well, it never seemed to me that some of the corporate practices that went on in the past were all that different. A lot of those practices have been outlawed, so now you boys have to try to gain the same ends legally. I think that even Arnold, who used to find the practice of law so uplifting, has had his doubts about it, at least since Harry took your place in his life. Or tried to take it."

"You think then that it's all a matter of there being less hypocrisy today?"

"There's certainly less of it. Indeed, I wonder at times if there's any of it left. And I must admit I miss it. Justice Holmes said once that the sight of heroism bred a faith in heroism. And I don't see much heroism in the world about me."

"Are you losing your faith in it? Harry used to tell me he believed in no absolute moral rules. That there was only taste, and that good taste was what kept him from crimes like murder and robbery."

Eleanor appeared to be little impressed by Harry's values. "I have the good taste, anyway, to reject Harry. And to prefer the old Rod Jessup to the new."

"And what was the old Rod Jessup?"

"A proud, stiff, idealistic puritan right out of the pages of Hawthorne!"

"And an anachronism."

"But such a pretty one. Leave me my memories; they're all I've got." She turned to the menu. "Let's not be too serious, Rod. I think I'm going to content myself with a salad. If taste is all we have left, I trust it will be a good one."

Rod followed her lead and picked up the card. But he was quite resolved not to bring up the subject of Arnold's inopportune visits to his office. There would at least be that much left of the "old" Rod Jessup.