“I don’t think you would have liked this party.”
“No, no, of course not. But I used to get asked. Well, so did you. There was a lot of rot talked but it did get one through the evening. Everything’s very quiet here now.”
This judgment was immediately rebutted by the descent of the Commando dinner party who stumbled noisily down the staircase and into the billiard-room.
Guy paused to greet his brother-in-law.
“I didn’t ask you to our dance,” said Box-Bender. “It is very small, for young people. I didn’t suppose you’d want to come. Didn’t know you ever came to London as a matter of fact.”
“I don’t, Arthur. I’m just up to see lawyers. We’ve sold the Castello, you know.”
“I’m glad to hear it. Who on earth can afford to buy property in Italy now? Americans, I suppose.”
“Not at all. One of our own countrymen who can’t afford to live in England—Ludovic.”
“Ludovic?”
“The author of The Death Wish. You must have heard of it.”
“I think Angela read it. She said it was tosh.”
“It sold nearly a million copies in America and they’ve just filmed it. He’s a fellow I came across during the war.”
“One of your party in there?”
“No. We aren’t quite Ludovic’s sort of party.”
“Well, the Castello should be just the place for a literary man. Clever of you to find a buyer.”
“That was done for me by another fellow I met in the war. You may remember him. An American called Padfield. He used to belong here. He’s become Ludovic’s factotum now.”
“Padfield? No. Can’t say I remember him. How’s everything at Broome?”
“Very well, thank you.”
“Domenica all right, and the boy?”
“Yes.”
“Farm paying?”
“At the moment.”
“Wish mine was. Well, give her my regards.” A voice called, “Guy, come and play slosh.”
“Coming, Bertie.”
When he had gone, Elderberry said: “That’s your brother-in-law, isn’t it? He’s putting on weight. Didn’t I hear something rather sad about him during the war?”
“His wife was killed by a bomb.”
“Yes, that was it. I remember now. But he’s married again?”
“Yes. First sensible thing he’s ever done. Domenica Plessington, Eloise’s girl. Eloise looked after the baby when Guy was abroad. Domenica got very fond of it. A marriage was the obvious thing. I think Eloise deserves some credit in arranging it. Domenica manages the home farm at Broome. They’ve settled in the agent’s house. Pity they haven’t any children of their own. They aren’t at all badly off. Angela’s Uncle Peregrine left his little bit to the child. Wasn’t such a little bit either.”
Elderberry remembered that Box-Bender had had trouble with his own son. What had it been? Divorce? Debt? No, something odder than that. He’d gone into a monastery. With unusual delicacy Elderberry did not raise the question. He merely said: “So Guy’s happily settled?”
“Yes,” said Box-Bender, not without a small, clear note of resentment, “things have turned out very conveniently for Guy.”
About the Author
Evelyn Waugh (1903–1966) was born in Hampstead, England, into a family of publishers and writers. He was educated at Lancing and Hertford College, Oxford, where he majored in journalism and modern history.
Waugh’s first book, Rossetti: His Life and Works, was published in 1928. Soon afterward his first novel, Decline and Fall, appeared and his career was sensationally launched. “In fifteen novels of cunning construction and lapidary eloquence,” Time summarized later, “Evelyn Waugh developed a wickedly hilarious yet fundamentally religious assault on a century that, in his opinion, had ripped up the nourishing taproot of tradition and let wither all the dear things of the world.” Apart from his novels, Waugh also wrote several acclaimed travel books, two additional biographies, and an autobiography, A Little Learning. His short fiction is collected in The Complete Stories of Evelyn Waugh.
BOOKS BY EVELYN WAUGH
Novels
Decline and Fall
Vile Bodies
Black Mischief
A Handful of Dust
Scoop
Put Out More Flags
Work Suspended
Brideshead Revisited
Scott-King’s Modern Europe
The Loved One
Helena
Men at Arms
Love among the Ruins
Officers and Gentlemen
The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold
Unconditional Surrender (also published as The End of the Battle)
Sword of Honor (omnibus)
Stories
Mr. Loveday’s Little Outing, and Other Sad Stories
Tactical Exercise
Basil Seal Rides Again
Charles Ryder’s Schooldays
The Complete Stories of Evelyn Waugh
Biography
Rossetti
Edmund Campion
Msgr. Ronald Knox
Autobiography/Diaries/Letters
A Little Learning
The Diaries of Evelyn Waugh
The Letters of Evelyn Waugh
Travel/Journalism
A Bachelor Abroad
They Were Still Dancing
Ninety-Two Days
Waugh in Abyssinia
Mexico: An Object Lesson
When the Going Was Good
A Tourist in Africa
A Little Order
The Essays, Articles and Reviews of Evelyn Waugh
List of Abbreviations
A/Ty Acting Temporary
AA anti-aircraft
ACIG[S] Assistant Chief of Imperial General Staff
ADC aide-de-camp
AG Adjutant General
ALC assault landing craft
AMGOT Allied Military Government of Occupied Territories
AO Air Officer
ARP air-raid precautions
AT a member of the Auxiliary Territorial Service (later the Women’s Royal Army Corps), which recruited British women to work in the army
ATM Army Training Memorandum
BGS Brigadier General Staff
BM Brigade Major
CIGS Chief of the Imperial General Staff
CO Commanding Officer
CSM Company Sergeant Major
DAQMG Deputy Assistant (or Acting) Quartermaster General
DLF Director of Land Forces
DPS Defense Planning Staff
DSD Director of Signals Division
DSO Distinguished Service Order
Ensa Entertainments National Service Association
ESO Embarkation Staff Officer
FANNY First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (of women)
GHQ General Headquarters
GHQME General Headquarters, Middle East
GOC Creforce General Officer Commanding Creforce
GSO General Staff Officer
HLI Highland Light Infantry
HOO Hazardous Offensive Operations
IO Intelligence Officer
JD judging distance
L of C lines of communications
MC Military Cross
ME Middle East
MEF Middle Eastern Forces
MLC military landing craft
MM Military Medal
MO Medical Officer
MT motorized transport
NAAFI Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes
NBG no bloody good
NCOs non-commissioned officers
OC Officer Commanding
OCTU Officer Cadets Training Unit
ORs other ranks
PAD passive air defense
PX stores Post Exchange stores, on US Army bases, supplying such goods as cigarettes and nylons
QM Quartermaster
QMG Quartermaster General
RAMC Royal Army Medical Corps
>
RAP regimental aid post
RASC Royal Army Service Corps
RCH Royal Corps of Halberdiers
RDF Radio Direction Finding (radar)
RNVR Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve
RSM Regimental Sergeant-Major
RT radio telephony/telegraphy
RTO Railway Transport Officer
SMO Senior Medical Officer
SNO Senior Naval Officer
T/A Temporary Acting
T/y Temporary
TEWTS Tactical Exercises Without Troops
UNRRA United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration
VADs Voluntary Aid Detachments
W/T wireless telephony
WAAFs Women’s Auxiliary Air Force members
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Contents
Welcome
Dedication
Foreword
Preface
Chapter One: Sword of Honor
Chapter Two: Apthorpe Gloriosus
Chapter Three: Apthorpe Furibundus
Chapter Four: Apthorpe Immolatus
Chapter Five: Apthorpe Placatus
Chapter Six: Happy Warriors
Chapter Seven: Officers and Gentlemen
Chapter Eight: State Sword
Chapter Nine: Fin de Ligne
Chapter Ten: The Last Battle
Chapter Eleven: Unconditional Surrender
About the Author
Books by Evelyn Waugh
List of Abbreviations
Newsletters
Copyright
Copyright
The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
Copyright © 1965 by Evelyn Waugh
Foreword copyright © 2012 by TK
All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher constitute unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at
[email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
Little, Brown and Company
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First e-book edition: December 2012
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ISBN 978-0-316-21668-5
Evelyn Waugh, Sword of Honor
(Series: Sword of Honor 1-3 # 1)
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