Parents and Children (14 page)

‘Some more letters,' said Nevill, with increasing urgency.

‘How many do you think there are?' said Miss Pilbeam, bending towards him.

‘A hundred.'

‘No, there are twenty-six.'

‘There are twenty-six,' said Nevill, in an impressed tone. ‘And he will learn them all.'

‘The next one is called e.'

‘A white one,' said Nevill, looking about for the crayon.

‘Yes, if you like. The letters are called the alphabet.'

‘They are called letters.'

‘Yes, they are called that too.'

‘He calls them that,' said Nevill.

‘He is the first person I have met who really said “Let me know all”,' said Hope. ‘And at his age too! I suppose the others do know all by now.'

‘They are just beginning Latin,' said Miss Pilbeam.

‘Well, isn't that knowing all? People don't begin Latin until then. And now we go down and meet those who have been learning even longer. I see it is true that the whole of life is education.'

‘That is a happy thought,' said Faith, as she turned to follow. ‘It makes me feel less regret that so far I have learned so little.'

‘I am sure you mean you have had no advantages,' said Hope. ‘And I believe they were equal to Miss Pilbeam. And you have
only just begun to want to know all. I don't know how it is you are so late.'

‘Would you prefer this chair, Mother?' said Faith at the table, suggesting that she harboured no ill feeling.

‘No, guests always think everything is perfect. Isn't it nice of her to go on calling me Mother? I always think it is so daughterly.'

‘You are the only mother I can remember.'

‘I appreciate your not recalling other examples of what I am. Your father and Ridley both do it, and it seems such a double course.'

‘Ridley does not do you the same honour,' said Fulbert.

‘It is a little different,' said Faith. ‘He is older and a man.'

‘It seems to be quite different,' said Hope.

‘How was Nevill managing his first day in the schoolroom?' said Luce.

‘Managing is the word,' said Hope. ‘He was giving directions and having them followed.'

‘Is Miss Pilbeam a success?'

‘Yes, indeed. They were doing Latin and the alphabet. And those are the foundations of all learning.'

‘I am so glad,' said Luce. ‘I suggested Miss Pilbeam, because I knew she really needed the employment. It is a relief that the arrangement is a success.'

‘You are unPlatonic, my child,' said Fulbert. ‘The work does not exist for the man, but the man for the work.'

‘I know nothing about Plato, Father,' said Luce, illustrating the methods of education in her family. ‘But I do know when a kindness needs to be done. And this was a clear case of it.'

‘I am so glad Miss Pilbeam has a post that suits her,' said Faith. ‘I have been so sorry for her and her father since Mrs Pilbeam died.'

Fulbert threw his quizzical glance from one young woman to the other.

‘You need not worry about your children's education, Fulbert,' said Hope. ‘I saw it going on on every floor. There is a room on each on purpose. I am glad we never go round our house; the
difference would strike us too forcibly. I daresay Paul and Ridley go sometimes, to hear the echo of a voice that is still.'

‘Mrs Cranmer, there is room in my heart for more than one person,' said Ridley.

‘Yes, that is what I was saying, dear.'

‘And I am sure I may say the same of my father.'

‘No, you may not,' said Hope; ‘I forbid it.'

Faith turned grave, neutral eyes on her stepmother.

‘You will miss the hunting this winter, Fulbert,' said Paul.

‘I shall, and other things as well.'

‘Yes, that would not be the first thing on his mind, Father,' said Faith with a smile.

‘We do not talk of the things that go too deep for words,' said Hope. ‘I suppose it would really be no good.'

‘Will you be hunting, Daniel?' said Paul.

‘There are other things that he must do,' said Eleanor at once.

Regan turned eyes of troubled sympathy on her grandson.

‘It is a thing he should not have begun,' said Sir Jesse.

‘You forget, Paul, that they do nothing but learn,' said Hope. ‘A person has only to need a post, to be accommodated as a teacher here. I think it is wonderful of Luce to lift weights off people's minds. If we had not provided for Faith, it might be such a relief.'

‘I am far from regarding myself as fit for such important work as teaching, Mother.'

‘But Luce would regard you as fit, dear. That is what I mean. I said it was wonderful of her.'

Regan laughed in enjoyment of the joke, quite free from uneasiness about her grandchildren's advantages.

‘I don't think you hunt, Faith?' said Fulbert.

‘No, I do not,' said Faith, in a quiet, pleasant tone.

‘You are like Luce and uncertain of your nerve?'

‘Yes, I make no claim to that kind of courage, Father,' said Luce, smiling and saying nothing of other kinds.

‘It is not the highest sort,' said Fulbert.

‘I wonder if there is any other,' said Graham. ‘I felt it was the lack of the whole of courage that prevented my hunting.'

‘My nerve is quite good,' said Faith, in the same tone.

‘She thinks it is cruel to the fox,' said Hope. ‘Isn't it imaginative of her? She puts herself in his place.'

‘We must set the pleasure to human beings on the other side of the scales,' said Sir Jesse.

‘She thinks the fox doesn't count that, or not enough to find it any compensation. She believes he only thinks of himself. And yet she thinks of him. She is a wonderful character.'

‘She thinks of the fox and not of men and women.'

‘No, she thinks of them too. She says that hunting degrades them, that they should get their pleasure in other ways. She wants them to have pleasure.'

‘Hunting takes a lot of qualities,' said Sir Jesse.

‘Grandpa speaks after a lifetime's practice of it,' said Daniel.

‘A way you will never speak,' said his grandfather.

‘Is this being cruel to be kind?' said Hope. ‘Or is it just being cruel?'

‘It is being honest,' said her host.

‘It is showing moral courage,' said Graham. ‘In other words yielding to temptation.'

‘The qualities might surely be put to better purpose than hounding to death an innocent creature,' said Faith.

‘Hounding is a good word,' said Hope. ‘It seems such a right use of it.'

‘I do think, Mrs Sullivan,' said Ridley, bending towards Eleanor, ‘that there is something repellent in the idea of a little, terrified creature being driven to exhaustion and death. How would any of us like it ?'

‘The fox has his own chance,' said Sir Jesse.

‘He would prefer the one that we have,' said Daniel. ‘Not that I consider his preferences.'

‘You may do so,' said his grandfather.

‘You are hunting as usual, Paul?' said Fulbert, regarding Faith's scruples as things to be necessarily passed over.

‘More than usual, now that I am my own master.'

‘Can I pass you the sugar, Father?' said Faith.

‘Isn't it selfless of Fulbert to take an interest in what he will miss?' said Hope. ‘It is people with emptier lives like mine who ought to go away.'

‘It is because of what ny life holds, that I am going.'

‘Yes, it would hardly bj worth while for me to go.'

‘Take what you can get out of it, my boy,' said Sir Jesse, almost harshly. ‘You are not a woman,'

‘Father knows that, Grandpa,' said Luce, in her demure tone.

‘I think he is one of those men who do,' said Graham.

‘Do men get more out of things than women?' said Faith. ‘I should hardly have thought so.'

‘I would not exchange my life for a man's,' said Regan.

‘You would be an odd person if you would, Lady Sullivan,' said Ridley, in an earnest tone.

‘I always think I should have been more of a success as a man,' said Eleanor.

‘Mrs Sullivan, you do not wish for the change?' said Ridley, in an almost stricken manner.

‘Well, not at this stage, I suppose.'

‘Would you be rid of us all, Mother?' said Luce.

‘Well, I might prefer to be your father.'

‘That would be giving up a good deal of us.'

‘It would be gaining some more,' said Fulbert. ‘I admit no belittlement of fatherhood.'

‘We must acknowledge the woman's part as the deeper and fuller here,' said Ridley.

‘In most cases,' said Faith. ‘And exceptions prove rules.'

‘They seem to break them,' said Graham. ‘But what does it matter?'

‘Would you be a woman or a man, Luce, my dear?' said Regan.

‘A woman, Grandma,' said Luce, simply, turning her eyes full on Regan's face.

‘Which would you choose to be, Father?' said Faith.

‘Well, I think a man gets more and gives less.'

‘You have not answered my question, Father.'

‘He has in his own way, Faith,' said Luce, in a low, amused tone.

‘It would be no advantage not to give,' said Faith. ‘One would not wish to give that up.'

‘It would be shocking to ask Faith what she gave,' said Hope
to her husband. ‘She can only give intangible things, and no one can speak of those. And I did feel the impulse.'

‘Few normal people would wish to belong to the opposite sex,' said Daniel.

‘It would mean they were different,' said Graham. ‘And that would seem to them a pity.'

‘A human being is a wonderful thing,' said Faith.

‘Then of course it would be a pity,' said Paul.

‘A human being is in some ways a melancholy thing,' said Ridley, glancing at Eleanor.

‘People often make their own troubles,' said Faith.

‘Well, it does seem shallow to be fortunate,' said Hope.

‘We don't all have to make them,' said Regan.

‘I wish I had had as much sorrow as you have, Lady Sullivan,' said Hope. ‘I am really ashamed of having been through so little.'

Regan laughed.

‘I don't know anyone with such an infectious laugh as Grandma, when she really gives it,' said Luce.

‘I daresay the experience behind it only adds to it,' said Faith.

‘Can't we even laugh properly without having trouble?' said Hope. ‘Then it is true that laughter is near to tears. Is this six or seven children coming in?'

‘You know it is six, Mother.'

‘I knew it ought to be. But it did seem to be more. And surely these children ought to count more than one.'

Nevill ran up to Regan and stood by her knee.

‘A, b, c, d,' he said.

‘What a clever boy! I did not know you could learn so fast.'

‘A is red, b is blue, c is green, and d is pink,' said Nevill watching her face for the effect of this knowledge.

‘Does Miss Pilbeam colour them?'

‘No, he does. There are twenty-six.'

‘Twenty-six what ?'

‘Twenty-six a, b, c, d,' said Nevill, rapidly moving his feet.

‘Letters,' said Honor.

‘Letters,' said Nevill, a calm overspreading his face.

‘And you will learn them all?' said Regan.

‘He will learn twenty-six.'

‘And what colours will they be?'

‘White, purple, brown, crimson lake,' said Nevill, with very little pause.

‘Does it confuse him to have the colours?' said Eleanor. ‘I should have thought it would make it harder.'

‘It does make him think each letter has its own colour,' said Honor. ‘But he asked to have it like that. He really wanted to paint them.'

‘Aren't they wonderful to have to have things made harder?' said Hope. ‘And to ask for it too. I have never heard of it before.'

‘You must have heard of children who wanted to colour things, Mother,' said Faith. ‘I always did myself.'

‘Yes, dear, but I thought it was to make them easier.'

‘We can't catch my stepmother out, Mrs Sullivan,' said Ridley.

‘That was the last thing I wanted to do,' said Faith, in a quiet tone.

‘We know quite a lot about Faith,' said Hope. ‘Most people are so secretive about themselves.'

‘I hope I do not talk about myself,' said Faith. ‘Not that there is anything I wish to hide.'

‘I want to hide almost everything,' said Hope. ‘Some of it must leak out, but I do trust not all.'

‘Did you like your lessons with Miss Pilbeam, Gavin?' said Eleanor.

‘I didn't mind them.'

‘Did you, Honor?'

‘Yes, thank you, Mother.'

‘He liked it too,' said Nevill, turning his eyes rapidly from face to face.

‘Don't they think or talk of anything but learning?' said Hope.

‘This is an exceptional occasion,' said Eleanor. ‘They have a new governess.'

‘Yes, the one that was not Miss Mitford. Have you got rid of her? I mean, have they grown beyond her? Of course they would have.'

‘No, they are not up to her yet.'

‘Who is up to her?'

‘These two,' said Eleanor, indicating Isabel and Venice.

‘And does James have someone in between?'

‘No, James goes to school.'

‘The school is between Miss Mitford and Miss Pilbeam. And Daniel and Graham are at Cambridge, and there is no more for Luce to learn. I see I denied my stepchildren every opportunity.'

‘Have you little ones finished your dessert?' said Eleanor. ‘We don't want much of you today.'

Nevill forced the remainder of his portion into his mouth and prepared to leave.

‘The child will choke, my dear,' said Fulbert.

His son ran towards the door, with a view to dealing with his situation in his own way.