Savage Grace Page #4

Mummy, I love you.

- You've been fantastic.

- You needn't...

I wanted to, really.

I can't begin to tell you

how much of an improvement...

Well, she'll be all right.

Well, she'll always be Barbara.

Yeah.

And... what of you?

What of life in the world

of Tony Baekeland?

a va.

"a va"?

"Pas mal"?

No, no, no, no!

That isn't good enough by half.

Tony takes care of Jake.

Tony takes care of Barbara.

Someone must take care of Tony.

What I would like to do, ideally,

is to place you with a gallery.

Or, failing that,

with a private dealer -

and that is something

I know I can do.

You shouldn't have done that.

Sam...

you should not have done that.

He's your child,

and he will always be your child,

but he is a grown man

with his own life and his own choices.

You don't know

what you're talking about.

Tony is who Tony is.

Tony is not who Tony is!

Dear Papa,

I don't know any other way to say this

but straight out.

Would you please

come back to Mummy?

She's so unhappy.

She needs you...

but is too full of pride to ask.

Do you remember our dog

whom you named Giotto?

The dog is gone,

but the collar remains.

For all the times we've moved,

I've taken it from place to place.

It's never gotten lost,

not even once.

I do not know why you fear me.

I do not fear you.

Sometimes I have a bloody mind

and I don't know what to do about it,

but I fight it with everything I've got.

With my best love, Antony.

Tony!

Tony!

Brooks!

Everything is going to be all right.

My mummy told me,

ever since I was seven:

"Hold your head up high. "

A very strange thing

is when your charm ceases...

and, for one reason or another,

you become gloomy.

And people cease to understand you

when you need understanding the most.

I now realize that,

for many years,

I have been living a totally false life.

Anyway...

for Mummy's sake, I've decided

to make a new person of myself.

We'll be bored rigid without you.

- It's harder to get people to come...

- Than it was in Cadaqus? I know.

I know.

It's time.

It's time.

I'm glad he's gone.

I'm not sure, Papa,

you would want to know this,

but she used sleeping suppositories,

six or seven of them,

so that she wouldn't

change her mind - couldn't.

I remember she told me that her father,

my grandfather, had killed himself,

so I fear that...

all this ran very deep within her.

It was a miracle,

that I came home that night

instead of staying out till morning,

as is my custom.

And a miracle that when I did come home

she was still alive.

Taking care of Mummy

had been your job.

But when you left, Brooks,

taking care of Mummy

became my inheritance.

Barbara?

Hi.

We just missed each other.

I'hpital?

They told me

that you had been there.

This... must be very hard for you.

Your music? Your writing?

That!

Carlos thinks very highly of you -

always has.

- And I'm sure he'll...

- Have you seen Brooks?

Carlos saw him.

I don't think that Brooks

is liking me very much these days.

- He said I was a crapule.

- Oh, please!

To Brooks, everyone is a little sh*t.

Everyone in the whole wide world.

Including me, including you.

Including even Carlos, for God's sake!

But not Leo.

Not the sainted grandfather.

- What was it he said?

- Who?

Hemingway, I think.

Or the other one...

- Fitzgerald?

- Yes. It was one of them.

- Who said?

- What it is I'm trying to remember!

God!

I'm turning into Nini.

Monsieur, encore.

Merci bien.

I know.

It was about Paris, I think.

"If you're tired of Paris,

you're tired of everything. "

I remember.

"To say that one is tired of Paris

"is in fact to say

that one is tired of life. "

Something like that.

Mummy hoped that with a new place

would come better things for us,

and she was right -

but not completely so.

But still,

Paris was a step up in the world.

It was in Paris that I started

writing backwards in my notebook

so that no one could

read my thoughts.

But Mummy seemed to be able

to read them anyway,

as if she were inside my head,

looking out.

My great-grandfather Leo once said:

"One of the uses of money is

"that it allows us not to live with

the consequences of our mistakes. "

But I fear that, in this,

Leo was wrong.

Tony?

Do you know

what I would really love?

What would you really love?

What do you think?

- This is so good.

- I'm glad.

It's exactly what I wanted.

Well, then I'm all the more glad

I was able to obtain it.

Is there a better ice cream

in the whole world?

- Is it Thursday?

- Yes, it is.

I have dinner with Ethel tonight.

- Ethel de Croisset.

- I'll make other plans.

- She won't mind if you tag along.

- I don't want to impose.

I don't like what happens

when you "make other plans. "

Mummy... please.

The afternoon

of the longest laundry?

- I don't do that anymore.

- Mmm... Hm!

What does the G stand for?

- What, dear?

- The G.

"George" - like his father.

Do my wrists, would you?

That was lovely.

And now...

I need some privacy.

Scoot, so that I can get dressed.

Teeny. I'm so sorry.

Mummy always said that I should be

furious with you for stealing my girl.

But I said:

"Mummy, he didn't hurt me.

"He hurt you. "

Still, Papa,

you should have come back.

I thought that one day

you'd wake up and know that, too.

But you never did.

And something else

I want you to know:

Giotto's collar has disappeared,

and I will not be able to sleep

until we find it.

Not the formal opening dinner -

that's me and 17 of the dealer's

closest friends getting pissed at Regine's.

This is different, more intime.

I was thinking that after the vernissage

I would gather together a small group -

you and Mishka, of course,

and Ethel de Croisset and the Durns

and Bill and Rose Styron,

if they are still in town.

Not buyers -

not... not a business thing.

- Thank you.

- People you love,

and who I know would love each other.

I can't begin to tell you

how much Tony adores London.

I believe it's brought about

a sea change in him.

Do you remember, in Paris,

how down he could get,

how... pulled within himself?

And then, in the morning,

how agitated?

Well... that's still Tony,

of course.

But in London he eats,

he walks, he even shops.

This morning we stayed in bed until 11

reading the newspapers.

For him, that's unheard of.

For me, paradise.

- Oh, thank you.

- It's a pleasure.

What do you think, Mishka,

of a small dinner following the vernissage?

What's not to like?

It sounds like a great idea.

Well, I was thinking

I might have it here.

I thought it might add

a note of class to my own little works,

which they in no way,

on their own merits...

Of course you can have

your little dinner over here.

I don't know how to thank you.

Tony will be thrilled.

Well? Where is it?

Where is it?

Where did you put it?

It is not my responsibility

to keep track of your objects.

But it's not anywhere.

Missy Harnden

is the soul of graciousness.

When I mentioned that there would be

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