V.V.(8) Chapter Seven, part 1 - summary

[Michael Perez]

     Chapter seven opens in the office of psychodontist Dudley
Eigenvalue, who reluctantly agrees to again speak with our Herbert
Stencil.  At first, Stencil complains that the Alligator Patrol was
being abandoned.  The reader is also perplexed as to why he
should be bringing this to a dentist.  Eigenvalue says:  “In a world
such as you inhabit, Mr. Stencil, any cluster of phenomena can be
a conspiracy.” [154.12]  He asks Stencil if he is interested in some
field of dentistry and Stencil seems to want to talk about
prosthetics, using inanimate material to replace that which has
grown within the body.  Eigenvalue shows Stencil the set of metal
teeth that he was admiring in his “museum” [154.25] before
Stencil’s arrival.  Stencil tries to go on the offensive by this line
of
questioning, but Eigenvalue comes back with “Who then is V.?”
[155.4], which does not exactly startle Stencil, since he is of the
opinion that Eigenvalue is part of, or at least has knowledge of, the
grand conspiracy.
     Stencil’s answer reveals that he is able to admit he has not been
a very successful sleuth.  He says:  “She’s yielded him only the
poor skeleton of a dossier.  Most of what he has is inference.”
[155.8]  In his travels, though, he does find out many things, but
how they connect to his search for V. is still a puzzle for him and
the reader.  Stencil then begins to recount two lines of discoveries
from the spring of 1899 in Florence.
     We again meet Evan Godolphin [see 98-101], but before his
stint as a reconnaissance pilot in WW I.  In 1899, while displaying
to an even more exaggerated degree the same aesthetic foppishness
that fit in so well with other flyers, he reveals a willingness to be a
prodigal son in the name of Vheissu, a place that he stopped
believing existed when he was sixteen.  He also proves to be
willing to be a fool for the ladies, contrary to some intimations
thus far regarding his possible sexual preference.
     The scene changes to the front of a wine shop where Signor
Mantissa and Cesare are waiting and drinking in the rain.  Cesare
is as willing as Evan to be a fool for the ladies and attempts to
serenade two English girls “like a steamboat” [161.2]  Finally, the
person for whom they have been waiting, a Venezuelan called the
Gaucho, arrives and Mantissa outlines his plan to steal Botticelli’s
painting “The Birth of Venus” from the Uffizi museum in a
hollowed out Judas tree, with Mantissa and Cesare disguised as
workmen.  Mantissa figures they will not be noticed since the
Uffizi is undergoing some redecoration.  They plan to make their
escape on a barge to Pisa and from there on a boat to Nice, all
arranged by Cesare, who is “below suspicion” [161.27].  The
Gaucho, however, prefers to approach things as a man of action,
thus consciously playing the role of a Machiavellian lion while
Mantissa plays the fox.  However, both seem to forget that
Machiavelli also warns “the lion is defenseless against traps and a
fox is defenseless against wolves” [p. 99; _The Prince_, trans.
George Bull: Penguin, 1961].  Mantissa acknowledges the need for
decisive action, that being the reason he has enlisted the aid of the
Gaucho, but the Gaucho is discouraged by the elaborate nature of
the plan and the fact that too many others have been let in on the
caper.  In addition, the Gaucho had no idea of the size of the
painting - “175 by 279 centimeters” [164.6].  He revises the plan
somewhat, it now includes a bomb that he will provide, and they
are to meet at Sheissvogel’s [“bird shit”] between nine and ten that
night to be on the barge by midnight.
     We are then reintroduced to Victoria Wren, now nineteen,
saying an act of contrition in church and we get caught up with her
story since Cairo.  When her father confronted her about her
liaison with Goodfellow, she agreed to never return to England. 
She is in Florence to buy “a small couturière’s establishment on
the left bank” [166.29], having been to Antibes, Athens and Rome
from Cairo.  Coincidentally, she has also had three further affairs
since leaving Cairo, none of which she feels in any way conflicts
with “her private, outré brand of Catholicism” [167.13].  By virtue
of the short time she spent as a novice, “she had crystallized into a
nun-like temperament pushed to its dangerous extreme” [167.20] 
As an unofficial “Bride of Christ,” she seems to believe “that the
marriage’s physical consummation must be achieved through
imperfect, mortal versions of himself” [167.23], which is, I guess,
why she “had impure thoughts” [166.5] about Evan.
     Victoria is about to leave the church when she collides with
none other than Captain Hugh Godolphin, FRGS [Fellow of the
Royal Geographic Society].  He seems in desperate need of help
and Victoria leads him to a garden behind the church where he
begins to tell her about the reasons for his being distraught and a
“godforsakenly remote region” [170.7] called Vheissu.  Victoria
tries to get more information from him than his fanciful ranting,
but Godolphin just bites his nails, as the sky begins to darken.
     In the meantime, Evan arrives at the address given in the
telegram he received in Deauville.  A note with his name is tacked
to the door, but he finds the place deserted.  He finds a shirt and a
pair of trousers.  After searching the room for clues or messages,
he goes to light one of the cigarettes he found in the case that was
in the pocket of the trousers along with some currency, when he
gets the idea that the message may be in the cigarettes.  Sure
enough, the third one he cuts open reveals a message from his
father to meet him at ten at the same Scheissvogel’s at which the
Gaucho will be waiting for Mantissa and Cesare.  On his way out
of the room, Evan nearly falls seven stories when the stairs
mysteriously give way beneath him.  His miraculous exit down the
banister leads him outside and to the attention of two policemen,
who do not trust his papers and suppose he may not be English but
could be from any country “Even one we have never heard of”
[175.21], which causes Evan to think about Vheissu.  He is taken
into custody.
     Meanwhile at the Venezuelan embassy, the Consul-General and
Vice Consul talk about the appearance of the Gaucho and arrange
to have the police detain him.  The Gaucho is in the Uffizi
museum looking over the scene of the evening’s planned theft,
when he, too, taken into custody.  He is taken to what he believes
to be a consulate, but the elaborate fixtures in the rest room lead
him to believe it is either American or British and, indeed, he is
questioned by an Englishman who asks him about Vheissu.


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