THE ENGLISH GARDENS
227
bars on the window, they open out, like a shutter, see? And
look ..." he pointed to the fireplace with its motto. "What's it
say, man?" When he had translated it, Nicolas told him:
"Yeh, man. Now that's the truth! We all gotta bum, bum
bright! Like, you know, like real poets ... right?" The accom–
panying looks, while strangely flirtatious, were flattering and re–
spectful. At last they settled down, rather formally. One of them
was less at a loss how to begin than the other. Nicolas, after a
brief pause in which he studied Meredith's face with grave at–
tention, said, "You know? We gonna be
friends.
I like you. I like
how you look."
Meredith felt this was a straightforward speech, although
it embarrassed him, somewhat. "Well, thank you," he replied.
"No, I
mean
it, friends! We all poets, right? We gotta love
each other cause there's nothin but cold outside, right? What
they know, they know how it is to bum? Like it says there on the
fire. No, they do not." The final jump from the basic English of
Louis Armstrong to the crispness of T. S. Eliot was of a virtuos–
ity not lost on Meredith. It bemused him, further defenses fell.
He found himself more and more pleased that Manas had come.
This was not work, of course, but it was as lively a substitute for
it as he had found in a long time. Nicolas continued: "Now if
this was, say,
Greece,
in the Golden Times, we'd a embraced.
How's it go? The kiss of brotherhood. Right?" His dark, keen
eyes looked for a sign, for with several homosexual poets this
sentiment had had a marked effect. But seeing only an open
nodding face he hastened on, "We's all soldiers
in
the army of
Poetry, right?"
Meredith cleared
his
throat and clenched his fists a few
times, releasing temporary embarrassments and showing, he
hoped, a fraternal frame of mind. Suddenly, he was inspired to
ask, "How would you like a bottle of beer. I think I'll send for
some. How about that?" (He wanted to say 'right?' but as yet
he couldn't bring it out in his own tone of voice.)
"Great, man. No food around here, huh? I mean Nicolas
