Deception Page #6

for you if you desire it.

The only question is the Hermitage.

oh, Alex, really.

- I don't know.

I really feel most uncertain.

Darling, you may as well have a drink.

All right. Scotch and soda, please.

Supposing, after all,

we had a vosne Romane?

But then with a partridge aux truff...

But if, on the other hand, we had...

...a woodcock.

A woodcock. A becasse flamb, or

a la Vatel, or a la Perigord...

...then we could have a vosne

Romane. A Romane-Conti even.

very well, then, a woodcock. Now,

with a woodcock, with a woodcock...

...[SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY]

Bon soir. Bon soir.

Schatzi, do me a favor

and don't come tonight.

I can stand my own anxiety but not yours.

All right, if you'd rather I didn't.

I'm sorry I upset you.

That's all right. HOLLENIUS:

Well, you two, ready?

oh, the cello.

Christine is tired. She's going home.

oh, I hope that excellent saddle of

venison we had hasn't disagreed with her.

Maybe we should have had the woodcock.

Here, darling.

Thank you.

- Well, come along, my dear. We'll drop you.

Alex, I think I'd rather walk. Good luck.

[CAR DOOR oPENS, CLOSES]...

...[ENGINE STARTS]

ANNoUNCER [o vER RADlo]:

This concludes...

...the 1 a.m. edition of worldwide news.

The following is transcribed.

[CoMMERCIAL JINGLE PLAYS]

ANNoUNCER:
Remember, folks, when you

spell Drawrof backwards, it reads forward.

[JINGLE RESUMES]...

...[RADlo CLICKS oFF]...

...[PLAYING SoMBER TUNE]...

...[DOOR CLOSES]

KAREL:
A power complex, that's what it is.

The insolence of a megalomaniac.

A paranoiac, a dictator.

Darling.

- Have we abolished dictators in politics...

...to find them cropping up in

music? I've had enough of dictators.

An egomaniac. Insulting into the bargain.

As an artist and as a

human being, he insulted me.

Arrogance. Insolence. But never

again, I tell you. Never again.

The man is crazy. Not that I

mind. All composers are crazy.

Nobody minds them being crazy.

Everybody expects them being crazy.

But this man, this man deliberately

upset a performance of his own music.

I knew it.

- I knew what he was up to...

...the way he sat down at the piano.

Then interruptions, interruptions.

out of sheer perversity.

of course I played badly. I played

horribly, atrociously, but he made me do it.

But no more of that. No more.

I put up with his vanity,

with his airs and graces.

But spoiling my performance,

that's something I won't stand for.

I'm glad.

Glad?

- Yes.

Because you're so right. I'm

so happy to hear you say it.

What does it matter, Hollenius and

his concerto? To us they're nothing.

We'll forget them. We'll

go to San Francisco.

There's a whole world of music there.

And we'll start together with

nothing, nothing but each other.

What on Earth are you talking about?

Well, you are not going on with it, are you?

Who said so?

- Well, you did.

I?

- Yes.

I said no such thing. I said I wouldn't...

...stand for nonsense from

Hollenius. Nor will I.

He's a spoiled baby masquerading

as a little tin god. He's a...

But his concerto. It's made

for me. The adagio section.

lf he's going to snatch it away from you?

- I'd like to see him try it.

It's a bit late for that. Why should he?

What put that extraordinary

idea into your head?

What have you been talking

about all this time?

I said that he was crazy. And so he is.

I didn't say he was crazy

enough to take his concerto...

...from the only person who can play it.

Christine, I'm asking you.

Why should he?

Why should he?

oh, he's not to be trusted, Karel.

This was a row between a

very arrogant composer...

...and a hot-tempered instrumentalist.

Why do you read more into it than that?

oh, he's capable of anything.

Capable of spoiling the first

performance of his concerto...

...because his pupil gets married?

oh, no.

Not over a pupil. over

something else perhaps.

Karel, you promised me

not to speak of that again.

But I think of it. Promise or no promise.

Karel, I tell you I misunderstood

you when you first came in.

lf he has any such idea in mind...

- oh, but he hasn't.

You said yourself you

played atrociously tonight.

That's true. With the orchestra...

...I shan't play atrociously.

I shall play well.

And then, then if he makes trouble...

- oh, but he won't, Karel, he won't.

Stop clenching your hand.

And give it to me.

Come on.

Poor darling.

of course Hollenius is not going

to take the concerto away from you.

It was stupid of me even to think of it.

You're going to play

wonderfully at the rehearsal.

[DOORBELL BUZZES]

CHRISTINE:
Good morning, Jimmy.

Is the master in?

- He's not at home, miss.

I see.

I've come to pick up Mr. Novak's cello.

It's just gone off, miss.

By special messenger.

Well, I'll use the phone

then, if you don't mind.

What's this contemptible

lie about not being at home?

When have you condescended

to hide from a woman?

I suspected this was

some dirty trick of yours.

To be faced by a virago at

this hour of the morning.

Christine, my constitution simply

will not stand this sort of thing.

You asked for it.

- How?

Are you referring to your

husband's appalling exhibition...

...of temperament last night?

Miracle you're allowed to live.

- Listen to the woman.

I think it should be I who complains.

And in the morning to be confronted by

a bawling fishwife, bristling with fury...

...because I fail to appreciate

the genius of her male.

Alex, I have come here

to warn you. To warn you.

Threats, eh? My dear, if you knew...

...how many daggers I've had flourished

before me by hysterical ladies of the opera.

At an earlier period of my life.

Some of them I now use for paper knives.

There's one thing that lends

a threat some dignity, Alex.

What's that?

- An inflexible resolve to carry it out.

You know, there's a female in this opus...

...who is really not entirely unlike yourself.

- oh.

Listen, my dear, isn't it about time

we started talking a little sense?

What is it exactly that's bothering you?

What you're doing to Karel.

I was giving him the chance of a lifetime.

Yes, which you mean to take away again.

Why should I do that?

- oh, out of spite, perhaps.

To break him because I've told you

he's not well enough to stand it.

You're a strange man, Alex.

It could be that you have some vague

notion in that inflated ego of yours...

...of abolishing him. You know, the

godlike gesture to get me back again.

You flatter yourself, my dear.

But if that's what you think, you go to him.

Tell him to throw the thing up himself.

Tell him why.

- oh, you swine.

That is a very coarse expression coming

from so smartly dressed a young woman.

I'm referring to that handsome coat.

Take it back. You...

I seem to remember the dress too.

But restrain yourself, my dear.

Jimmy might come in.

The poor little creatures.

They frisk about, you know.

They have their little love affairs

and suddenly they're trapped.

You idiot.

A young woman with talent and intelligence

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