PARTISAN REVIEW
like. It's perfectly simple. I flatter 'ern." And when he said "flatter
'ern" one suddenly recollected that Christopher was the son of an
army officer, from the huntin', ridin' and fishin' counties, an English
country gentleman, with a certain military command of his environ–
ment. This final confidence of the triple bluff was the supreme flat–
tery. It surely implied: "I wouldn't be telling you this if I didn't
mean that when I flatter you it is no flattery at all, but quite serious."
Or did it mean this? Is it possible that there was a faint malicious
gleam in Christopher's eye when he said this, which meant: "I flatter
you like everyone else, I know you love it, and I am prepared to tell
you so to your face."? Or perhaps merely he was like a doctor who,
with a smiling face, presses with a finger the revealed area of one's
greatest weakness.
Yet I do not doubt that Christopher's affections were real. The
proof after .all of the reality of one's feelings is one's capacity to
suffer for them. And Christopher suffered as intensely as anyone I
have known. Extreme suffering caused by another person in his
mind could be mixed with a quite farcical indifference. For example,
once we were joined at Sellin by the boy who is called Otto in the
story called "The Dead" (in
Goodbye to Berlin)
which is the most'
brilliant of Christopher's stories. Otto was vain, stupid, selfish, in–
considerate and weak: but withal, when he was with Christopher one
saw real qualities of pathos, a rather folklorish kind of imagination,
and perhaps a faintly discernible streak of affection in his nature.
Christopher's company acted on him like a very powerful microscope
through which Otto's good qualities were magnified ten-thousand
times. Christopher in a way was aware of this. The whole of Sellin
became a stage for Otto to act out a morality play. The beach was
the stage for innocent daylight scenes of play and frank confession.
At night, there was Hell
in
the shape of a dance hall situated near the
woods (the lower circles of Hell), a little outside Sellin itself. Oc–
casionally repulsive looking temptresses from the lower regions used
to emerge during the day and sit close to us on the beach, sirens call–
ing and beckoning at Otto. Christopher was the emaciated call to
a better life, struggling with Otto's soul. Half of Christopher acted
this out as pure farce. One day when Otto swam completely out of
sight (he was a very powerful swimmer) Christopher said: "Stephen,
pray. Pray on your knees that he may be drowned." On another oc-
1330
