Henrietta Sees It Through (10 page)

‘Your what, dear?' said Lady B.

‘Fashion Play. In the church.'

Lady B opened her bag. ‘You haven't got that
absolutely
right,' she said, ‘but I'd like to buy a ticket.'

Always your affectionate Childhood's Friend,

H
ENRIETTA

 

 

 

June 16, 1943

M
Y
D
EAR
R
OBERT

The Conductor and Faith are married. At the last moment Faith developed Qualms, Doubts and Fears. First she said she wanted to be married in a Registry Office, and when
the Conductor stoutly refused to be a party to such heathenish antics, she said she couldn't be married in our church, because the face of a centurion in the East window always reminded her of her first husband. Lady B and I thought this a bit far-fetched, but in the end it was arranged that they should be married in a village church five miles away.

‘It's just like you, Faith, to make things as difficult as possible for everybody,' said Charles crossly. ‘I thought I should be able to pop into the hospital on the way to the church, and now I've got to waste the whole afternoon driving miles into the country.'

Faith's beautiful eyes filled with tears. ‘Of course, if you don't
want
to give me away, Charles,' she said.

‘About flowers——' said Lady B.

‘I thought delphiniums,' said Faith. ‘You see, blue is my colour. Two huge bunches of mixed blues would look lovely against those whitewashed walls, don't you think? I've hired some blue carpet.'

It struck me that for somebody who was suffering from Qualms, Doubts and Fears, Faith had got everything very clearly arranged, and I began to understand why she had insisted on the village church.

‘I shall feel so awful walking up the aisle all alone,' said Faith. ‘I was wondering, darling Henrietta, whether you would wear your long blue frock - it's such a lovely cut - and be my Matron of Honour? You see, I'm wearing powder blue, and a sombre touch is just what is needed.'

‘No, Faith,' I said. ‘I love you very much, but I'm not going to be a Sombre Touch at your wedding. Besides, you won't be alone - you'll have Charles.'

Charles said suddenly, ‘What am I going to wear?' and there was a horrible silence, because he always borrows the Conductor's wedding garments when he has to dress up.

‘You can have The Suit, Old Boy,' said the Conductor, too happy to be worried by such trifles.

‘Don't be silly,' said Lady B. ‘You can't marry Faith in a pair of corduroy trousers.'

‘He looks sweet in them,' said Faith, ‘but they wouldn't go with my Powder Blue.'

‘We might do a quick change in the vestry,' said Charles. ‘Then I could walk up the aisle in The Suit, and you could walk down in it, and the Squander Bug would fall dead in the porch.' But Lady B said Charles must wear his Best Blue, and that was the end of that.

I started very early for Faith's wedding because I hadn't been on a bicycle since the first year of the war, when I fell off, and I'd promised Faith to give the delphiniums a final touch before the service. As I wobbled painfully past the station the passengers from the London train were just coming out, and suddenly I saw the Awful Dan.
*

One of the funny things about bicycling is that whenever you particularly don't want to run into something you always do, and I found myself bearing down upon Dan at a breakneck speed. ‘Get out of my way, Dan!' I shouted, but Dan stood fair and square in my path and took firm hold of the handlebars, so that I shot forward and my face hit his chest, leaving a patch of powder on his uniform.

‘Not for the first time,' said Dan, beating his chest so that quite a cloud of powder rose in the air.

‘I don't doubt it,' I said coldly, for I had taken trouble with my face.

‘You still look a good deal nicer than usual,' said Dan kindly. Then he peered closely at me and began to laugh.
‘You've got mascara on your eyelashes, you funny little thing,' he said.

‘I'm going to a wedding,' I said. ‘Faith's wedding, as a matter of fact,' and I looked to see him wince.

‘Good!' said Dan. ‘I like weddings.'

He wanted to ride my bicycle and make me sit on the handlebars, but I refused to do this, so he borrowed one from the porter and we set off together, Dan with one hand between my shoulders pushing me up the hills, so that we arrived at the village church in no time. After I had looked at the delphiniums, which were perfect, we went and sat in a sunny corner of the churchyard.

‘By the way, who is Faith marrying?' said Dan. ‘That Conductor chap, I suppose?'

I nodded. ‘You aren't sad are you?' I said.

‘Sad? Me?' said Dan. ‘Why?'

‘I just wondered,' I said. ‘She's wearing powder blue.'

‘She would,' said Dan.

Nearly everybody came to Faith's wedding on bicycles. The hedge outside the village church was stacked with them, and a woman in one of the cottages opposite gave up her front room for people to tidy themselves up in before going into the church. Colonel Simpkins came in his little pony cart, which he hitched to the vicarage gate, and the pony ate most of the vicar's hedge during the service.

The Conductor, who had never had the chance of appearing in The Suit before because Charles was always wearing it, astonished us all by his magnificent appearance. Faith looked quite exquisite. Her eyes matched the delphiniums, and just the right Sombre Touch was provided by Charles's blue suit. Everybody was moved by the sight, and I felt the tears coming into my own eyes. It is a mistake to cry, even a little bit, when you have mascara on your eyelashes. In less
than a minute I was in agony and the tears were pouring down my cheeks. Dan looked at me and then handed me a large, clean, white pocket handkerchief.

The reception, which was held in Faith's house, was a tremendous success. There was no champagne, but a sort of Cup, which had been brewed by Charles, produced a very hilarious spirit among the guests, and everybody, including Dan, kissed the bride a great many times.

‘What were you crying about in church?' said Mrs Savernack to me, rather spitefully. ‘The Conductor says he's going to keep on the choir.'

‘She was wishing she'd married me instead of Charles,' said Dan.

‘I quite enjoyed the wedding,' said Charles to me that evening. ‘What did you think of the Brew?'

‘Excellent, and extremely potent. I enjoyed the wedding too. Dan shoved me up the hills and we sat in the churchyard and had a flirtation.'

Brewed by Charles

‘Dan would flirt with anything,' said Charles. Then he yawned and opened
The Times.

Always your affectionate Childhood's Friend,

H
ENRIETTA

 

 

 

*
An ex-suitor of Faith's whose unexpected release from an Italian prisoner-of-war camp a few weeks previously had given the Conductor (and perhaps Faith too) some sleepless nights.

 

 

 

June 30, 1943

M
Y
D
EAR
R
OBERT

A Queen of the W.V.S. came down to talk to us one day last week. I met Lady B hurrying down the Street that morning, so as to get her shopping done early before the meeting, and we walked along together. It was an unpleasant, cold, wet day, and everybody we met looked worried and hurried.

‘The Shopping Face seems to have got worse lately,' said Lady B, after Mrs Savernack had passed us, muttering, with a sort of gardening-basket-wheelbarrow pushed before her.

I glanced in the large mirror which our grocer so kindly keeps in his window for the use of lady customers, and shuddered.

‘I don't mind waiting my turn,' said Mrs Admiral, white with rage, coming out of the grocer's at that moment, ‘but one day when some woman pushes her way forward, I shall Strike Her!'

‘But you
promised
me liver,' wailed little Mrs Simpkins in the butcher's.

‘No liver today, Madam,' said Mr Bones, that patient man.

‘Kidneys?'

‘I'm sorry, Madam.'

‘What do you
do
with your kidneys, Mr Bones?' said little Mrs Simpkins. ‘Haven't you a heart?'

‘No heart,' said Mr Bones sadly.

Out in the Street, a cold, driving rain was falling. Mrs Whinebite poked her umbrella into my eye and said, ‘Do look where you are going, Henrietta.'

‘Dear me,' said Lady B. ‘What's the matter with everybody this morning?'

I looked at her. Her face under her W.V.S. hat was calm and untroubled. ‘Darling Lady B!' I cried. ‘You are the only
person in the Street today who looks happy!' and I threw my arms round her neck and kissed her.

Mrs Savernack, bowling down the Street at a breakneck speed, caught us behind the knees with her gardening-basket-wheelbarrow, and we both fell to the ground.

The pavement was wet and muddy. I have never seen Lady B so cross. ‘Is it really necessary to wheel that thing about in the Street?' she said, wiping mud off her skirt with her handkerchief.

‘Is it necessary to embrace in the middle of the pavement?' said Mrs Savernack. ‘It's time Henrietta learnt to control herself.'

‘And don't keep nagging at Henrietta,' said Lady B, putting her hat straight, or, rather, at the right angle of crookedness. ‘A nice sight I shall look at the Inspection.'

‘W.V.S. . . . Bah!' said Mrs Savernack, who is not a member, and trundled away.

When Lady B and I arrived, the hall was nearly full. I, who am what Charles calls the W.V.S. Dog's Body, took a lowly seat at the back, and Lady B, who ought to have sat among the High-Ups, came with me. The hall smelt of wet mackintoshes, and I reflected, not for the first time, that there are more ways than one of wearing a W.V.S. hat.

There are more ways than one of wearing a W.V.S. hat

‘I'm not sure I shall stay,' whispered my neighbour on the other side. ‘My feet are wet, and I hate to see women throwing their weight about.'

Then there was a stir at the door, and Authority arrived, with Satellites. Authority looked absolutely stunning. I was so overcome that I instinctively rose to my feet, as we used to do at school when the headmistress came in to prayers. Lady B tugged me gently into my seat again.

Authority, who somehow gave the impression that she was enjoying the whole thing, talked for twenty minutes with one eye on the clock. And, as she talked, a strange thing happened. We, the Ordinary Housewives, sat up and began to feel proud. This hasn't happened much during the war. The Ordinary Housewife has gone her dazed way, being told to eat more of This and less of That, and then, almost directly afterwards, less of This and more of That; her proposed Journey, generally the result of a craving to get away from home, has been proved Unnecessary, and abandoned; she has salvaged, patched, bought half-crown Savings Stamps on Monday mornings, and given breakfast-in-bed to her more glamorous sisters home on leave from the Forces. And all the time with the nagging thought at the back of her mind that she was Not Doing Enough. But here was somebody telling her that she was doing quite a lot.

Balm in Gilead! We sat, with our baskets on our laps and our mouths slightly open, and drank it in. ‘You women,' said Authority, ‘are the Army that Hitler Forgot.'

I gulped. ‘Don't cry, you fool,' whispered Lady B, but her own eyes were full of tears.

‘Keep it up,' said Authority. ‘Go on being steadfast, and patient, and cheerful as you always have been.' There was some uncomfortable shuffling at this, and I felt my own ears go red.

Then out swept Authority and her Satellites, to rush away to the next village with her message of cheer.

‘I felt as though I'd been Saved,' said Lady B. ‘Any minute I thought I should get up and testify.'

There was a good deal of delay at the door, because everybody waited politely for everybody else to go out first, but we got into the Street at last, and the first person we saw was Mrs Savernack, still trundling.