Parents and Children (30 page)

‘You have had a good game,' said Regan, to the children.

‘We did while it went on,' said Gavin.

‘I fear we do not receive encouragement to prolong it,' said Ridley.

‘Grandma could hide behind the staircase,' suggested Gavin.

‘He will kill the lion,' said Nevill, coming tentatively down the stairs. ‘He won't let it eat poor Grandma. He will kill it dead.'

‘There, it is dead,' said Ridley, dropping the skin on the floor. ‘You see you have killed it.'

‘It is quite dead,' said Nevill, in a regretful tone, descending the rest of the stairs and cautiously touching the skin with his foot, before trampling freely upon it. ‘But he will make it alive again.'

‘It was dead before,' said Gavin.

‘But once it was alive. It was in a forest and could roar.'

‘It was in a jungle,' said Honor.

‘A jungle,' said Nevill, in reverent tone.

‘It is a lioness, not a lion,' said Gavin. ‘It has no mane.'

‘It is really a tiger,' said Honor.

‘Which is more fierce?' said Nevill.

‘A tiger,' said his sister.

‘Then it is a tiger, a great big tiger. No, it is a lion. A lion is more fierce.'

‘I fear I am in disgrace, Lady Sullivan,' said Ridley. ‘And it is not a day when I should choose such a situation. I am here to make an appeal to your favour.'

‘He is a lion,' said Nevill, thrusting his head under the rug and making a charge against Ridley as vigorous as possible, considering its weight.

‘I wish I could say the same of myself,' said Ridley, gently repulsing the attack. ‘I am feeling the reverse of lion-hearted. I had come to ask a word with your husband, and my attention was distracted by these would-be inhabitants of the jungle. I fear I helped them to realize their ambition.'

‘It sounds as if you were easily distracted,' said Regan.

‘So much did my errand mean to me, that I found myself postponing the risks that it involved.'

‘And how long do you want to keep on that line?'

‘No longer, if you will make it easy for me to do otherwise.'

Regan met his eyes in silence, not fulfilling this suggestion, and suddenly turned and led the way across the hall.

‘Poor Mr Ridley has to go and see Grandpa,' said Nevill, with eyes of concern.

‘He wants to,' said Gavin.

‘No, he didn't like it.'

‘He said he did.'

‘Hints are in the air,' said Honor, swinging one leg round the other. ‘Hatton and Mullet are big with them.'

‘What?' said Gavin.

‘Hatton is big,' said Nevill. ‘But not as big as Mullet. Hatton is rather big.'

‘A cloud no larger than a man's hand,' said Honor.

‘Why do you talk without saying anything?' said Gavin. ‘It makes talking no good.'

‘All in its own time,' said his sister.

‘You think you are grand,' said Gavin, and ended the conversation.

The schoolroom party came down the stairs. James took a seat on the lowest step and opened a book; Isabel leaned against the balusters; Venice came up to Nevill with a view to his entertainment.

‘Why have you all come down?' said Gavin.

‘We are to play in the hall, because we are not getting any exercise,' said James, just raising his eyes.

Isabel laid her head on her arms, in personal discharge of the obligation.

‘There is something heavy in the atmosphere in these days,' she said.

‘You have said it,' said Honor, nodding.

‘Play at lions like Mr Ridley,' said Nevill, struggling under the rug.

‘So that is what the noise was,' said Isabel.

‘It sounded as if someone was hurt,' said James, in an incidental tone.

‘The screams of the damned,' said Honor.

‘Don't let her talk like that,' said Gavin, with a note of misery.

‘There are breakers ahead,' said Honor.

Gavin walked up to her and gave her a kick.

‘Gavin, that is very unkind,' said Venice. ‘And you should never kick a girl.'

‘Ought I to kick Nevill then?'

‘No,' said Nevill, flying into Venice's arms.

‘You must never be rough with girls, or boys younger than yourself.'

‘Then I can be rough with James.'

Honor went up to Gavin and returned the kick. He took no notice beyond rubbing his leg, and they resumed their normal relation.

‘They didn't mean to hurt each other,' said Nevill, withdrawing a long gaze.

Sir Jesse and Regan and Ridley came from the library, continuing their talk. They gave no attention to the children, who did nothing to attract it.

‘I shall always be grateful, Sir Jesse, for the hospitality of your house.'

‘You did not come here for your own purposes.'

‘I have confessed that I began to do so, as time passed. How many months is it since the death of your son?'

‘We know,' said Regan. ‘And no one who does not, needs to be told.'

‘I do not forget what is due to the memory of a man who was my friend.'

‘He depended on you to be his,' said Sir Jesse, in a grave manner.

‘And to the end of my power did I fulfil that trust,' said Ridley, in a suddenly full tone. ‘If feelings arose to the overthrow of a simple spirit of duty, I was helpless as a man and a friend. The emotions of manhood carried me away. I regret if my words are crude; I have no others.'

‘Why are they so?' said Sir Jesse. ‘Things are not that, because they are simple. They need no doctoring.'

‘Eleanor was the wife of your son. She is the mother of your grandchildren. I have come to you and your wife, as those who stand in the place of her parents. I feel I have not been wrong.'

‘She has had no family since we have known her,' said Regan. ‘There is no demand on her, or on her family means.'

‘We have not come to the discussion of such things.'

‘A fact does not need discussion. No doubt you know it.'

‘You came here in the service of our son,' said Sir Jesse. ‘We continued to think of you as here in his interests. But I will leave our personal feelings; you are not concerned with them. I am prepared to wish you well. I desire no ill to befall you. I have been blind. I have not had my eyes on your life, but on my own.'

‘I am glad the last half-hour is over,' said Ridley, speaking as if Sir Jesse's words had been lighter than they had. ‘I have felt like a schoolboy making an awkward confession.'

‘A schoolboy does not often have to confess a thing like this,' said Regan.

Ridley went into laughter, as though to propitiate Regan by appreciation of her words.

‘What do you think of having nine stepchildren?' she said.

‘I hope I shall never forget they are your grandchildren.'

‘It would hardly matter if you did, as they will not.'

‘I suspect they will not indeed,' said Ridley. ‘I should be the last person to recommend their doing so. Not that they would appear to me to be the greater loss. And that brings me to the point of asking permission to fetch the other person most concerned.'

Eleanor was with her three eldest children in their study, and came out, accompanied by them.

‘Well, my dear, we are to lose you,' said Sir Jesse. ‘How much are we to lose with you?'

‘I knew that would be the point,' said Eleanor.

‘We have our lives,' said Regan. ‘You have given your minds to yours.'

‘They feel we have had them,' said Sir Jesse. ‘But we have to get through the days we have left. We have a right to ask what remains to us.'

‘There is a good deal that needs discussion,' said Eleanor.

‘It has had it,' said Sir Jesse. ‘Let us start where you left off. That is what we shall have to do.'

‘We thought of several plans and discarded them.'

‘Is there one you have not discarded?'

‘The one that seems to us best,' said Eleanor, with an open, cold simplicity, ‘is that Ridley and I should have a house in the village, and leave the children with you, on the understanding that I have daily access to them. We could not afford what you do for them, and it is best for boys to be guided by a man bound to them by blood. I would make the contribution to their expenses that I have always made. This seems best for the interests of us all.'

Regan drew a hard breath and sank into tears.

‘Sir Jesse,' said Ridley, keeping his eyes averted from her, ‘I should like to say how earnestly I will do my part under the new order; with what sincerity I will further the welfare of those to whom I stand in a semi-fatherly relation. If honest effort is of any avail—' He stopped as he saw Regan's face.

‘Such a thing is never useless,' said Sir Jesse.

‘I wonder what they will all have to say,' said Regan.

‘We are all here, Grandma,' said Luce, in a low, clear tone.

‘Our elders must soon have become conscious of the nine pairs of eyes,' said Daniel.

‘They would have had that feeling that someone was looking at them,' said his brother.

‘Lady Sullivan,' said Ridley, ‘I do not desire to hear what that may be. I doubt if it will be for my ears.'

‘What is your real word to us?' said Regan, suddenly to Eleanor.

Luce came forward and took her mother's hand.

‘That I have felt myself unfit to be alone with my burden. I have never had faith in myself as a mother. My children will not suffer from not having me in their home. I wish in a way that they would. And I shall be at their service. I see no good in postponing a change that is resolved upon, and I am not troubled about making it so soon. I am marrying in distrust of myself, in despair at my loneliness, and in gratitude for a feeling that met my need. I was not in a position to reject it.'

‘We wish you all that is good, my dear,' said Sir Jesse. ‘You are doing your best for yourself and for others, and many people stop at the first.'

‘And so may we say that the meeting is adjourned?' said Ridley, with a smile and a hand on Eleanor's shoulder. ‘Or rather dissolved, as the business is concluded.'

Regan gave Eleanor a look of such helpless consternation at her acceptance of this caress for another's, that Sir Jesse took a step between them.

‘You have other things to say to other people. You have done what you must by us.'

‘It will be the same thing,' said Eleanor, ‘but it will have to be said.'

‘No, Mother dear,' said Luce, ‘why will it? We know what there is to know. We do not need it repeated. We can bear to see you recede a little from us, if it is to result in your going forward yourself.'

‘You have always made things easy for me, my dear.'

‘And in this case you do so for me,' said Ridley.

‘I don't think they are finding it very difficult themselves,' said Eleanor, looking at her children.

‘It is not for you to see our problems, Mother,' said Daniel. ‘They would not be any help to you.'

‘No, do not ask for them, my dear,' said Sir Jesse.

‘I should almost like to feel they were greater,' said Eleanor. ‘Daniel, have you a word of your own to say to your mother?'

‘I welcome anything that is for your happiness. And the feeling is not only mine.'

‘So do I indeed,' said Graham, his eyes passing over Ridley.

‘You are kind and just to me, my children.'

‘He does too; he is too,' said Nevill, coming up to his mother.

‘I did not notice you were all here,' said Eleanor, looking round the hall.

‘It is a wet day, Mother,' said Luce, ‘and you sent word that lessons were to be suspended.'

‘Mother passed over six of her nine children,' said Venice.

‘You are always in my mind, my child,' said Eleanor. ‘I did not know you had come to the hall. Perhaps that is typical of my dealings with you.'

‘We are in a way grateful to Ridley,' said Graham.

‘Graham,' said Ridley, impulsively, ‘I see that as an unspeakably generous thing to say. I hope I shall never forget it.'

‘What has my Isabel to say to me?' said Eleanor.

‘Simply what the others have said. We have not had time to prepare our speeches. You are spared an awkward opening to your new life.'

‘The awkwardness would not have been chiefly Mother's,' said Venice.

Ridley looked at Eleanor in amusement, and with an air of being about to share the charge of the sprightly young of her family.

‘Well, James, what have you to say to your mother?' said Eleanor.

James looked up from his book with a start.

‘Have you not been listening, my boy?'

‘No,' said James, rather faintly. ‘Not to grown-up people's conversation.'

‘That is a good rule on the whole, but you could have made an exception today. We have let you stay away from school to hear what we have to tell you.'

‘If our family life were more eventful, James would face his future without education,' said Daniel.

‘I think the strain on him would be as great,' said Graham. ‘He, if anyone, must understand that life is one long training.'

‘So you do not know what we have been saying, my little son. Well, something is going to happen that will make me happier. Can you guess what it is?'

‘Father is not dead!' said James, jumping to his feet and standing ready to spring with joy.

‘No, that is not it. You know that is not possible. But someone is going to take his place, is going to take care of me for him. Can you guess who it is ?'

‘It is not Mr Ridley?' said Tames, in a tone of getting through a step on the way to the real conclusion.

‘Yes, it is he; it is Mr Ridley,' said Eleanor, looking past her son.

‘He has been taking care of you for some time, hasn't he?'

‘Well, now we are going to live together, so that he can do it better. You will be glad to feel I am not alone any more.'