The Mighty and Their Fall (3 page)

“Perhaps this pair are entitled to it,” said Selina, turning her eyes on her elder grandchildren.

“They are indeed by themselves,” said Ninian. “I fear I bear heavily on them. Lavinia would have had a different life, if her mother had lived.”

“Perhaps not a better one. She may not look back and wish it different.”

“It is for me to do that. For her and myself and all of us. I live with the might-have-beens.”

“Oh, I hope not, Father,” said Lavinia. “They should be left where they are, in the receding past.”

“They may be a guide for the future. There are lessons in our memories.”

“There is usually reproach in them,” said Hugo. “It may be the same thing. Is it not time for tea? I did not have very much luncheon. It was Hengist who did.”

“There was cold food on the sideboard,” said Ninian.

“I saw there was. And I saw it was cold. You are always so right, Ninian.”

“You can ring for tea, if you want it,” said Selina. “It is almost time.”

The bell was answered by the young butler, who glanced
at Selina, turned to the door, and transferred a tray from an unseen hand to the table in one smooth movement.

“Did a spirit bring it?” said Hugo.

“It was Percival, sir,” said Ainger, in a tone that deprecated both the name and its bearer. “The new boy, if you have happened to notice. He is a pair of hands.”

“Then is he a sort of spirit? That he is so nearly disembodied.”

“You should see him at table, sir. You would hardly apply the term.”

“Must we call him
Percival
?” said Selina. “What about the name of the last boy?”

“I made the suggestion, ma'am. And the rejoinder was that he was himself. A small point compared to others' convenience!”

“The other name was James,” said Selina, considering it by itself.

“That is the case, ma'am. And it could well be the present one.”

“Well, arrange it in that way. And if necessary, refer to me.”

“I will exert my authority, ma'am,” said Ainger, as he left the room.

“Ainger does well in life,” said Hugo. “I wonder if he thinks the same of me. I can hardly bear the stamp of success.”

“It may be true of us all,” said Ninian. “The future does call for help. It is our time to move forward. We must remember the years ahead. There must be change in life. Indeed life itself is change.”

“It ends in death,” said Lavinia. “There is no need for haste. We go forward only too surely.”

“You talk in borrowed words,” said her father, smiling.

“And you talk in riddles,” said Selina.

“Well, the answer will come in its time.”

“Have your father's words a meaning?” said Hugo
to Lavinia. “Is anything coming that will throw us on each other?”

“I don't think there is any fear.”

“I thought there might be hope.”

“Something is on us,” said Ainger. “There is something in the air. Well, we shall soon find out.”

“I am not one to ferret,” said the cook. “As I am not made on that line.”

“Well, he who has ears to hear! I am not sorry to have them.”

“You need not continue, Ainger. I am not a party to it.”

Ainger took his place by the kitchen fire, and Cook stood by him with a severe expression. She was a thin, sallow, middle-aged woman, with odd but definite features, undisguisedly toil-worn hands, and small, grey eyes that seemed to pierce any surface, and generally did so. Ainger was a tall man of twenty-eight, with a fresh, florid face, a broad, boyish nose, and blue eyes that penetrated nothing, which was perhaps why he used his ears. The bond between them did not come from their difference, but from their position above their fellows, which held them to a life apart.

“Well, the truth will come out,” said Ainger, turning on his heels. “Not that much seems to come to me.”

“Some things are withheld,” said Cook, looking unsympathetic towards this bearing. “We need not overestimate ourselves.”

“Well, no one saves us the trouble,” said Ainger, correcting it as if unconsciously. “And we can make a guess. Perhaps Mr. Hugo is going to be married. Well, he is not too young.”

“You need not make comments. And that is not my conjecture.”

“And you could not ever be wrong?”

“It might constitute an exception. But I take no credit.”

“Well, any change is better than none.”

“It depends on the nature. You should weigh your words.”

“The master will be in for luncheon. Straws point the way of the wind. It may mean the revelation. I aim to set the table for the whole party.”

“For the family,” said Cook, looking at him.

“And I shall be on the alert. Either at the table or behind it.”

“Ainger, you are in a mood. I pay no regard, as I see no reason.”

“Well, we have had no event for a long time.”

“And does that indicate that one is imminent?” said Cook, in a severe tone. “Not that I am without an opinion.”

“You are afraid to state it, in case it is erroneous.”

“I await what comes from the source. It is as yet sealed from our eyes.”

This was not to be the case much longer.

Ninian joined his family at the table, but was silent during the meal. At its end he rose, clenched his hands unconsciously, and spoke in a high, even tone, with a forced note of ease.

“I have a word to say. You have been expecting to hear one. I have felt something on my side, as you have on yours. Shadows are cast before. You know what my life has been. It is to be that no longer. You are to welcome someone in the stead of the mother you have lost. I do not say to replace her. That could not be, either for you or for me. But the blank in our life will be disguised, if not filled. And I will not deny that for me it is in a measure to be filled.”

The silence was broken by Selina.

“So that is what it is. We might have known. We shall soon feel we did know. So you are what you would naturally be. That is what we should have known. My son, may it all go well with you.”

“I knew my mother would wish it. And I want to hear that my children do. When a thing goes without saying we like the better to hear it said.”

“We can only say it does go without saying, Father,” said Egbert.

“He speaks for us all, Father,” said Lavinia. “And that does the same.”

“Thank you, my dear ones,” said Ninian, just turning his eyes on his daughter. “I looked to hear it, and am happier for having heard.”

“If you are happy, Father, we have what we want,” said Agnes.

“You sound as if you are excited,” said Hengist.

“She may be,” said Ninian. “And so may you all. It is a great change that is coming.”

“I am not excited,” said Leah. “We don't know what the difference will be.”

“Well, you will soon know,” said Selina. “It will not be kept from you.”

“Do you wish me well, Hugo?” said Ninian.

“I have no thought over from myself. Does she know about me?”

“Know that you exist?”

“Yes, there is nothing else to be known.”

“I have told her about us all.”

“A mother-in-law and five stepchildren cannot be helped. But it must seem to her that I could have been avoided.”

“Fifty-four years have made their claim,” said Ninian.

“To justify my being here? Well, it might take as long. I am fortunate if it takes no longer.”

“Will Father still like Lavinia as much?” said Hengist.

“I shall like her better,” said Ninian, at once. “I shall see her as the first of my little daughters, instead of the one I have forced out of due time. My reproach will be taken away.”

“What will be taken from me, Father?” said Lavinia, in a light tone. “Perhaps not a reproach.”

“What has been taken is your childhood. It is I who
have taken it. It is for me to give it back, before it is too late.”

“It is too late,” said Hengist. “She can't be a child now.”

“She can to her father. In a sense she has always been. Another relation has been imposed on the real one. And it is the second that goes deep.”

“Perhaps that is why it was harder to see it,” said Hugo.

“Lavinia and I will be more equal,” said Agnes. “There are only six years between us.”

“I have forgotten it,” said her father. “I must remember it now.”

“You know what you ask of Lavinia, Father?” said Egbert. “We wish you all that is good. We accept many of your words. But we must say one of our own.”

“Oh, all's fair in love and war,” said Ninian, in a light, almost ruthless manner, admitting a stress on the word,
love
. “She is a person who would know that.”

“Would a child know it?” said his daughter.

“I felt you would. I have found I can depend on you. You have wanted me to find it.”

“She is to have her wish,” said Hugo.

“Will Grandma still live with us?” said Agnes. “Or will she have another house?”

“Perhaps the new wife will not want her,” said Hengist.

“Or want you either,” said Selina. “Or want any of us. We are not what she wants.”

“But a father has to keep his children.” said Leah.

“Well, I want all of you,” said Ninian. “And she is ready to share you with me. And I will share her with you, if you do not take too much of her.”

“Why should we want to share her?” said Leah. “When we haven't seen her, and she doesn't want any of us.”

“No, you have not seen her,” said Ninian, as if he need say no more.

“Now I am interrupting an occasion?” said Miss
Starkie. “The voices warned me that the schoolroom was deserted. And I had no wish to reign in solitary state.”

“It is an occasion indeed,” said Ninian. “Or I hope I may say it is. I have been breaking a piece of news to them, the news of my coming marriage. Now that it is broken, I am sure you will congratulate me.”

“There is no need to say it, Mr. Middleton. And I would congratulate someone else, if convention allowed it. As it is, I do so in my heart. Well, children, you have had great news. You will find it hard to settle down.”

“If you think we can't, I suppose we shan't have to,” said Leah. “What difference will it make?”

“None, if I can help it. And I will not countenance much. We know our standard.”

“She doesn't want there to be any change,” said Leah to Hengist.

“Not for the worse, certainly,” said Miss Starkie. “It would be an odd wish. If you can make one for the better, I will be the first to welcome it.”

“Suppose the—the new wife wants to teach us herself?” said Leah.

“Well, I see no reason to suppose it,” said Miss Starkie, laughing. “I think you take an optimistic view of yourselves and your requirements.”

“It would save expense for herself and Father,” said Hengist. “She will be his wife and will share everything.”

“Well, I don't think you can expect her to share
you
. It will be my task to keep you from encroaching on her.”

“Father said she would share all of us with him,” said Leah.

“Oh, in that sense,” said Miss Starkie, and dismissed the subject.

“Will she be over Grandma, or will Grandma be over her?” said Hengist.

“What a question to ask! They will not see things in that way.”

“She will manage the house, and Grandma will advise her,” said Ninian. “So both the ideas are true.”

“Will she be glad to have children?” said Leah.

“Stepchildren,” said Lavinia.

“Will they make her more important?”

“Well, it would hardly be thought. They will show that her husband has had a life with someone else.”

“Do you mean with Mother or with you?” said Hengist.

“I meant with Mother. But it has been with both.”

“Well, now it will be with neither,” said Ninian, with his ruthless note. “It cannot be with the one, and should not have been with the other. It is a thing that need not be said.”

“And so need not have been,” said Hugo.

“And people do not think in that way,” said Miss Starkie to her pupils.

“How do they think?” said Lavinia. “Is there another way?”

“You must prevent this child from being too mature and cynical, Miss Starkie,” said Ninian, with a hand on his daughter's shoulder. “It is my fault that she talks beyond her years, without the knowledge to justify it. It is for you to put it right, as you have put right so much.”

“Is it not for you, Ninian?” said Hugo. “It is you who have made the mistake and want it rectified.”

“That is my reason for leaving it in better hands than mine.”

“Lavinia has learnt so many things easily and well, Mr. Middleton, that I am sure she will learn this. If she has been drawn too soon into the grown-up world, it will do her no harm to realise it. And perhaps she can have a foot in both worlds. That would be a fair compromise. We must try to see the matter through her eyes.”

“Well I must go,” said Ninian. “I need not say to whom. I am happy in not having to go far. But I shall be happier when we can both stay.”

The silence after he had gone was ended by Miss Starkie.

“Well, we have had a break in our day. We must go and do better with the rest. I think Lavinia and Egbert will be staying with their grandmother.”

“So she knows I should not be alone,” said Selina. “And she knows people have a right to what is theirs. What use is wisdom in the wrong place?”

“Is she too good to be a governess?” said Agnes, lingering behind.

“Few people are too good for things. And no one is too good to be left unprovided for.”

“You will not be the mistress any longer, Grandma,” said Egbert. “I can't keep the thought to myself.”