QUESTIONS WERE being asked at every table.
‘What’s Jean going to say about this?’
‘I didn’t know it was finished with her and Sandilands.’
‘It isn’t. I happen to know that she spent last night, or was it the night before, in his house which meant in his bed.’
‘We’ve all heard her say she and Sandilands were going to get married and live in Edinburgh.’
‘Yes, but nobody’s heard him say it.’
‘He’s too canny.’
‘Look, he can’t keep his eyes off her.’
‘No bloody wonder. She’s tremendous. Lucky bugger!’
‘If she’s so tremendous why is she interested in him? He’s nothing special.’
‘Except on the golf course.’
‘He plays with the Sultan, doesn’t he?’
‘Maybe he met her through His Nibs.’
‘They say she’s related to His Highness.’
‘Why then are she and her father, the old doctor, always on about elections?’
‘I read an article by her in the Savu Times once. Well, I didn’t read it all, it was too damned long, but I read enough to realise that she wants to get rid of His Highness and put an elected Parliament in his place.’
‘I don’t think they want to get rid of him exactly. They want him to be like our Queen, a figure-head.’
‘I can’t see him standing for that.’
‘He needn’t worry. If there were elections his Party would win every seat. Look at all the money he’s got to buy votes.’
‘What would happen to us if they had a Parliament? We’d all be kicked out.’
‘Or kept on with reduced salaries.’
‘They’d put their own people in all the top jobs.’
‘That’s happening already.’
‘Our man, Sir Hugo, would have to go if they had a Parliament. I heard him say it himself. It seems old Abad had the cheek to tell him to his face.’
‘That’s gratitude for you. We open up their oil fields for them, make them one of the richest countries in the world, and then they want to throw us out.’
‘They wouldn’t throw us out. They’re too polite for that. They’d ask us very nicely to leave. Mind you, in next to no time they’d want us back, for left to themselves they’d make a mess of everything. They’re charming but God, aren’t they incompetent?’
‘If they weren’t under British protection wouldn’t they be in danger from the Japs? I don’t mean by war, I mean by buying them out.’
‘We wouldn’t allow that.’
‘Jean’s got nothing to worry about. Sandilands would never marry a coloured woman.’
‘Has he ever said so?’
‘Not in so many words. But it’s an impression he gives.’
‘Well, there couldn’t be a bigger contrast, Jean with her blond hair and that dusky creature.’