Nothing So Strange by James Hilton Page A

things.”
    “Then get a taxi and you can come back in it.”
    “He doesn’t have taxis—he can’t afford them and he wouldn’t like me
to pay.”
    My father’s irritation showed through again. “Well, for once he can—
because I want you to tell him something. Tell him I wasn’t joking, even if
Julian was, about the idea of him going abroad. I’ve been thinking for some
time it might not be a bad thing. Tell him that.”
    “Why don’t you tell him?”
    “I did, but I don’t think he heard me. I’m sorry Julian talked of it so
flippantly—it’s really what Brad ought to do. He’s probably got all he
can out of this London job by now…. So tell him, will you? There’s a bunch
of physicists in Vienna, if he could get fixed up with the right connections.
I might be able to help him in that.”
    “ You might?”
    “Yes. I have—er—contacts there.”
    “In Vienna?”
    “Yes.”
    “But what about the Cavendish at Cambridge? Isn’t that as good?”
    “Cambridge isn’t the only place where they’re doing interesting things in
his line. The Continent would give him a different angle….”
    “You mean the glamour?”
    “No, no … or anyhow, that’s not the word for it. I wish Julian hadn’t
butted in with his witticisms…. Well, you talk things over with Brad. Ask
him how he’d like to spend some time working with Hugo Framm.”
    “ Hugo Framm ?”
    “He’ll know who Framm is. Ask him. Ask him.”
    The telephone then rang; I took it, as I often did; it was New York. Those
business calls were generally very dull as well as private, so I handed him
the receiver and edged away towards the hall doorway across the room.
    And then I saw Brad. His back was towards me, and in front of him, almost
hidden, was my mother. The lights in the hall were subdued, and all I could
see of her distinctly was the knuckle of her right hand as she held his
sleeve. She had been talking to him earnestly and I caught what was evidently
a final remark: “… and you mustn’t take any notice, Brad…. I’d hate you to be influenced at all….” Only that, whispered very
eagerly.
    He said nothing in reply, then suddenly, glancing round his shoulder with
a little side movement of her head, she saw me, I think, though she pretended
not to. I stepped back into the room. Presently my father finished his
call.
    “Well, as I was saying, Jane, see how he feels about it.”
    I answered: “Yes, but not tonight. I’ll talk to him at the College
tomorrow. I know he’d rather go home by tube.”
* * * * *
    I could have met him at lunch the next day and been sure of
not
interrupting his work, but I went straight to the lab about eleven-thirty,
committing the unforgivable sin, if it were one, with a certain gusto. After
all, he couldn’t already be working for another examination—or could
he? Anyhow, I caught him (so far as I could judge) doing that rare thing,
nothing. But he looked preoccupied and not really surprised enough; he asked
me to sit down, but I said it wouldn’t take me long to deliver a message.
Then I told him what my father had said about Vienna and Hugo Framm. His
whole manner changed. He seemed bewildered at first, then slowly and
increasingly pleased. He went to a shelf of books and showed me everything he
could find that had anything to do with Framm, who was apparently a
scientific star of magnitude. There was a paragraph about him in a recent
issue of Discovery , and an article by him in a German magazine.
Altogether I began to think it rather wonderful that Brad should have a
chance to work with such a man. “But I don’t see why he should even consider
me,” he kept saying. “There’s nothing I’ve done yet that could possibly
impress him.”
    “But my father knows him, Brad.”
    “Of course I realize your father has influence, but in a question of pure
science….”
    “Perhaps it isn’t a question of pure science. Perhaps Framm’s a bit human.