Pleasure Thieves

"You lied to me Phillip. You've been pulling your psychiatrist bit on me. You've known all about the Llewellyns, about their island, their ice. We're supposed to be working together. Or we were working together. Then you turn into a gentleman farmer. Crude Mr. Hatch even has to have a different name or he'll offend the servants. But this goes too far. The Llewellyns are mine. You should have told me, Phillip, it was the one time you should have played it straight."

"Harry," Phillip interrupted, "I will never help you with the Llewellyns. Never covet your neighbor's possessions, you know. Got to keep things at home clean, especially when to mess them up is suicide, insanity. You don't understand leisure. I am a man of leisure.

That means I have friends. Among them are the Llewellyns. So what?

What does that have to do with you? You're young, you're new.

They're an old part of me. I've known them as long as I've been in this house. They're a part of my life I don't wish to sully."

Phillip stared relentlessly at Harry. "If I had told you this immediately, we would never have accomplished anything. As it stands now we are fairly comfortable men, even wealthy. Yes, I can be a gentleman farmer and be equal to the Llewellyns. I'm not interested in their jewels when I can lead their lives. I can't help you if you don't know what to do with your life."

"Phillip, you know my story. You had to level with me."

"Level with you! Level! Do you know what the word means?

You're obsessed. You have fantasies; you steal for kicks. I'm a businessman, Harry. I've explained that before."

"Analyze all you want, Phillip. Have fun, twist some words about.

You have no trouble speaking in sentences, but you're a liar, a deceiver."

"I might have tried to show you discipline, but I don't think I've deceived you."

"Why did you bring me to this fucking country club? So I could learn to be as convincing a phony as you?"

"Okay, Harry, I lose. I didn't call this one right. I thought – I actually thought you might have changed."

"You're really sentimental, aren't you Phillip? Just know one thing.

You haven't come home to retire, my perfect gentleman. You've come here to die."

Harry walked out of the study leaving the door open behind him.

Phillip didn't look after him. He just listened to Harry's heels echoing in the marble hall.

CHAPTER XIII

Carol and Phillip did not speak much to one another that evening.

They had a brief cocktail together in the study before they left for the Llewellyns' farewell party. They weren't too interested in going.

Particularly Carol, who had been unusually withdrawn all day.

Phillip knew where her thoughts were, living or dying. Perhaps that was why he insisted so much that she go with him tonight. Yes, Phillip could come through wonderfully sometimes and he did pretty much always. It was a warm night, with a warm breeze, a delightful summer evening, ideal for a wonderful party. And Mrs. Llewellyn was as famous for her parties as she was for her diamonds.

They pulled up in front of the huge Llewellyn mansion. Masked guests were arriving, as was commanded in the invitations. As the gatekeeper took the car from Phillip, he reached into the glove compartment for his small black mask.

The ballroom blazed. The many-tiered chandeliers and ornate sconces were ablaze with soft pink lights. The white-covered buffet tables were sumptuously filled, eager to oblige the slightest appetite.

French provincial divans were scattered about the ballroom, but the luxurious scarlet carpet was piled so thick it was not necessary to sit or lie on anything else. A Spanish orchestra played softly at one end of the room behind an ornate screen. The music seemed to come from nowhere. Guests sat about in groups, talking, drinking, dancing.

Everyone was dressed in evening wear and masks. The effect was truly extraordinary.

A young man meticulously dressed in tails wore the head of an old shriveled bird. A buxom, rather middle-aged woman, had a rubber mask with the face of Betty Boop. The combinations were bizarre, but the guests never forgot their manners, as though they had frequently gone to balls with grotesque heads.

Carol was drinking with a group of people. She had managed to start drinking the instant she arrived. Instead of a mask, she had made her eyes up to look Egyptian, the lids covered heavily with blue-green shadow. Thick black lines exaggerated the almond shape of her eyes, and by contrast they looked silver, violet. Directly under her eyes, she wore a black lace veil, dotted with tiny sapphire sequins. Her hair was combed straight back from her forehead and fell down her shoulders.

She wore metallic dust in it, so that it shone silver and gold. Carol knew she looked good tonight.

Not far from her group was the diamond-loaded Mrs. Llewellyn and Phillip, standing together, engaged in an exchange of banalities, which Phillip charmingly tolerated. Mrs. Llewellyn wore a black half-mask, studded with diamonds.