Cosmopolitan

Chapter 2

The tea party was a great success, although at the expense of Alex and his friends. They were forced to listen to stories about this and that patient of Doctor Weston all afternoon, and Mrs Findlay's contributions were so boring that it is not even worth writing them down here. Only Lady Musgrave sometimes said something amusing, but as she said almost nothing it didn't help much.

After the boring guests had left, and Clarence had retired to the library with a book (unlike Alex, he tried to make up for the knowledge he had lost by being expelled from school), Alex saw Ivy standing at the salon window again with her little box in her hand.

"Why are you doing this?" he asked her. "You're not even that unhappy."
"Oh Alex," said lvy. "You're not stupid now, are you?"
It took Alex a moment to realise what she was trying to tell him. Then his eyes lit up and he grinned from ear to ear.
"Ivy, my child," he said, placing his hands on her shoulders, "I think I understood. I'll see what I can do."
"My child? You're only a month older than me!"
Alex ignored this interjection with dignity.

Then he turned around and joined Clarence in the library.

Clarence was sitting in a large wing chair and was studying the dialogues of Plato.
"Tell me," Alex began. "You were talking about this place earlier. What was it called again?"
"You mean the Cosmopolitan Café? That's a, well-" Clarence faltered briefly and smiled maliciously, "a mixture between an illegal brewery and a brothel, to be precise. A real 'capital of sin'."
"Well, that seems to be right up my alley. But strangely, you're such a moral person. How is it you know a place like this? "
"You know, Alex, just because you've declared yourself the god of iniquity doesn't mean that no one else is capable of being a little out of line."
Alex looked at him from the side with a smile. "I see you're beginning to become more normal," he said. "I really must have a look at this Cosmopolitan Café. I was planning to spend more time in London anyway."
"Although your brother doesn't like it, of course."
"That's right!" exclaimed Alex. "I don't care what my brother thinks, I really don't!"
He wisely decided not to say that this was not quite true.

"What do you plan to do next?" Clarence asked. "It would certainly do you good to educate yourself a little." He held up Plato's dialogues and made a welcoming face. 

Alex gave a scornful sound. "Poppycock! First of all, in the last two years I've learned more than a man can take in a lifetime, and secondly, um... well..." He couldn't think of anything else to say, so he quickly changed the subject.

"Wouldn't you like to stay a little longer? Daniel Gainsborough is coming for luncheon tomorrow."
Clarence smiled. "I'm surprised he didn't come before now. You've been back for over a month."

Alex looked at him and knew that he knew.
Daniel Gainsborough was a year older than Alex and had also gone to Eton. He was an average-sized, slim man with reddish hair, round green eyes and overall an ethereal appearance. Because he had a great love of poetry and also wrote his own poems, he had become the chairman of the poetry club at Eton, which Alex joined a little later, more out of duty than interest, but after a while he began to enjoy it. Well, to make a long story short: Alex had been terribly in love with Daniel. After some time he discovered that his feelings were reciprocated, which made him very happy, the only problem being to keep their love a secret from their classmates and especially from Travis, who was also still at school at the time. Travis kept a close eye on his little brother, not so much to spy on his loves, but to make sure he didn't embarrass himself and especially his family.

Still, he didn't notice anything because Alex was smart and knew very well when his brother was around and when not. Johnny Gray, a particularly unpleasant fellow who hated Alex because of his good looks and charm, suspected something and did his utmost to expose the two of them. One morning, however, he was taken to the hospital wing because of a severe stomach ailment and was unable to leave his bed for a week. He then left Alex and Daniel alone, suspecting (and rightly so) that his sudden illness was no accident.

Of course Alex had soon discovered that Daniel was not the angel he had initially thought he was. He was quite whiny and also a hypochondriac, but Alex liked him anyway.
During the war the flame died down a bit as he met Bethee and wanted to try to stay faithful to her, at least for the first few months after his return, but he didn't want to lose Daniel as a friend. Therefore Alex was happy to comply with Daniel's request to have lunch at Geranium Hall, since Daniel was in the area anyway.

"Oh, so Daniel Gainsborough is coming here tomorrow, eh?" Clarence said mischievously. He knew more or less everything and enjoyed pretending he didn't have the faintest idea.

"Yes, isn't that nice?" cried Alex's mother, who had just entered the library, followed by a very tired looking Ivy. "What a polite young man! The woman who will marry him one day can consider herself lucky!"
Alex looked down at the floor and smiled to himself.
"But now do me a favour," his mother continued, "and take care of Ivy a little. The poor child is degenerating into boredom!" Then she quickly went out again, having the awkward feeling that she had intruded into a private conversation.
"All right," shouted Alex, full of energy, and took lvy by the arm. "What would you like to do, dearest cousin? How about a little excursion into criminology? Have you heard about the highly obscure murder that took place in Dover last week? A man was found with his throat slit in his bathroom locked from the inside, but no murder weapon was found and-"
" No! Not another murder," cried lvy defiantly. "I'd much rather know who the pretty girl in the picture on your bedside table is!"
Alex immediately became serious and pale at once.
"I could ask you what you were doing in my bedroom, but since you will find out anyway, I might as well tell you. I'm engaged, my friends", he said quietly.
Ivy gasped. "No," she whispered. Then she hugged him so tightly that the wound on his neck was squeezed in an unpleasant way and Alex smiled a little again.