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Waugh's second wife is amiable, gracious Laura Herbert, daughter of the late Lieut. Colonel the Honorable Aubrey Nigel Henry Molyneux Herbert, second son of the Earl of Carnarvon. With her and their five children, Waugh lives at Piers Court, a spacious grey stone, 18th Century house crowning a hill in Gloucestershire. There, more than three hours from Mayfair, Waugh leads a comfortable, orderly, reflective life. An impeccable butler in striped trousers brings sherry and serves meals. The bright, airy rooms of the house are furnished with beautiful (and valuable) period pieces. There Waugh is at one with himself and the England he loves.
Waugh's Catholicism is an organic part of this oneness. In 1930 he was converted (by Father Martin D'Arcy, Britain's more literate Monsignor Sheen). Catholicism has given Waugh the unifying influence and the spiritualizing force whose workings are evident in Brideshead. It has also given him something which is also clearly necessary to his nature—the chance to feel superior in partibus infidelium.
During the war, Piers Court was for rent. The advertisement read: "Low rent to civilized tenant." For Waugh, then 38, set out to defend his ideal England. As a commando officer he took part in one of the raids on Bardia, in Libya, and made a reputation for daring. With Randolph Churchill and a group of British observers, he parachuted into Yugoslavia and came out with the original theory that gaudy Tito is a woman.
Noblesse oblige is not part of Waugh's concept of the conservative gentleman. The stories of his venomous rejoinders are legion. To a superior officer who suggested that Evelyn give up drinking after Waugh had spilled wine in the officer's lap, Waugh replied: "I do not propose to interrupt the habit of a lifetime merely to suit your temporary convenience."
Evelyn Waugh has great talents—and he is well aware of them. But he notably lacks one quality. Its absence contributes to the perfection and brilliance of his satire, but it also sets a definite limit on his greatness as man and artist. That quality is compassion.