Parents and Children (6 page)

‘Nevill is one of the baser creatures,' said Gavin.

‘He isn't,' said Nevill, clutching at Hatton's skirt and pointing to his brother. ‘He is the same as him.'

‘If people knew we had a baser creature, we should be prosecuted,' said Honor.

‘What is prosecuted?' said Gavin.

‘Put in prison.'

‘They will be put in prison,' said Nevill, in a comfortable tone to Hatton. ‘It is because they don't like him to be best.'

‘Why should we mind what he is?' said Gavin.

‘I wish you did not mind so much,' said Hatton, causing Mullet some amusement. ‘It is past the time for your breakfast. Nevill must come in his dressing-gown.'

‘Not much appetite,' said Nevill, leaning back in his chair.

‘You will eat like a baser creature,' said Gavin.

‘He was sick in the train,' said Nevill, disposing of the suggestion.

‘So was Honor.'

‘But he wasn't,' said Nevill to Hatton, indicating his brother.

‘No, Gavin was my choice at that moment,' said Hatton.

‘No, he was,' said Nevill, clutching at her arm and speaking in reference to what had taken place.

‘We were all rather uncivilized,' said Honor.

‘He was too,' said Nevill, nodding.

‘You are three children come back to your home after a period of exile,' said Mullet, speaking as if she were beginning a tale.

‘We haven't got a home,' said Gavin. ‘This home is Grandpa's. It is because we are poor.'

‘You are not,' said Mullet, in a sharper tone.

‘Mother said we were.'

‘That sort of poorness in your kind of family is different.'

‘It is better, isn't it?' said Nevill, in a consoling tone.

‘It is considered superior to the money of ordinary people.'

‘Why aren't we ordinary?' said Honor.

‘You are, until you prove you are not,' said Hatton.

‘Youngest are best,' said Nevill.

‘You won't be the youngest, if there is another baby,' said Honor.

Nevill regarded her for a moment.

‘He will,' he said.

‘That can be his distinction for the present,' said Hatton, leaving the table on some errand.

‘I do think Hatton does talk beautifully,' said Mullet, in a tone that seemed a reproach to the existing social order. ‘As pointed and as finished as any lady.'

‘Pointed?' said Gavin.

‘To the point,' said Honor.

‘Hatton does it, doesn't she?' said Nevill, looking up into Mullet's face.

‘Now we must not let time steal a march on us,' said Hatton, returning and using a rather conscious tone.

‘Why mustn't we?' said Nevill. ‘Why mustn't we, Hatton?'

‘There is a lot to be done by tomorrow, when the new governess comes.'

‘Not for him is she coming?'

‘Not for you as much as the others. You will go in for half an hour.'

‘She will like him, won't she, when he goes in?'

‘Nevill says she will like him!' said Honor.

‘I daresay she will at this stage,' said Hatton. ‘It is later that the crux comes.'

‘Crux?' said Gavin.

‘Crisis,' said his sister.

‘Hatton will come and fetch him,' said Nevill.

‘I have had two governesses,' said Honor. ‘I know the tricks of the trade.'

‘Yes, you know, we know them,' said Gavin.

‘He doesn't want to,' said Nevill.

‘And the nature of the beasts,' said Honor.

‘And the snares of the way and the obstacles of the race and all of it,' said Hatton, in an easy, rapid tone, keeping her eyes from Mullet and her hands employed. ‘But that does not prevent you from attending to your breakfast.'

‘It does do it,' said Nevill, putting his hand on her arm. ‘It does, Hatton.'

Eleanor's voice came again at the door.

‘Well, are you happy to be at home? Have you begun to feel brighter for your time at the sea?' she said, with a suggestion that this reaction had as yet been prevented in her children.

It seemed to her that it was still delayed.

‘I think they do look better, Hatton. Honor was well before, but the boys were too thin. Now tell me how you enjoyed your holiday. Did you like it, Honor dear?'

‘Yes, thank you, Mother.'

‘Haven't you any more to say about it than that? Why, you went to the sea, and had rooms taken for you, and Hatton and Mullet there to take care of you, and had three weeks in a lovely place by the sands and waves. Now didn't you enjoy it all, and find it a treat?'

‘It wasn't a lovely place,' said Gavin. ‘It was all houses and streets. And we always have Hatton and Mullet.'

‘But there had to be houses, or there wouldn't have been one for you to stay in.'

‘There could have been just that one house.'

‘But how would you have got anything to eat, if there had been no shops?'

‘There could have been one like the one in the village, that sells most things.'

‘It sells string,' said Nevill.

‘But you wanted things to eat like those you have at home. And they don't come from the shop.'

‘We didn't have them even as nice as that,' said Honor.

‘You don't know when you are well off,' said Eleanor, laughing before she knew. ‘I suppose all children are the same.'

‘Well, the same and different,' said Honor.

‘Hatton buy him a ball,' said Nevill.

‘Why, you have one there,' said Eleanor, looking at some toys on the ground.

‘No,' said Nevill, in a tone of repulsing her words.

‘You don't want another, do you?'

‘No,' said Nevill, in the same manner, shaking his head and a moment later his body.

‘What does he want, Hatton?'

‘Ball of string,' said Nevill, in a tone that suggested that the actual words were forced from him.

‘Oh, that is what you want. Well, I daresay you can have one.'

‘There is a kind that only costs a penny,' said Gavin.

‘It costs a penny,' said Nevill, in a grave tone. ‘But Hatton buy it for him.'

‘Well, Honor dear, tell me about the holiday. What did you like best?'

‘I think the beach,' said Honor.

‘That was all there was,' said Gavin. ‘The lodgings weren't nice.'

‘Weren't they? What was wrong with them? Were they not good ones, Hatton?'

‘Yes, madam, they were clean and pleasant. The children mean that the rooms were smaller than these.'

‘This home will be a disadvantage to them. It will teach them to expect too much. Now have you really nothing to tell me, but that the rooms here had spoiled you for others?'

‘We didn't tell you that,' said Gavin.

‘He found a little crab,' said Nevill. ‘It was as small as a crumb.'

‘Well, that was something,' said Eleanor. ‘You played on the beach, and found crabs, and found a lot of other interesting things, didn't you?'

‘Not a lot,' said Gavin. ‘We found an old net and a piece of wood from a ship.'

‘We weren't sure it was from a ship,' said his sister.

‘From a little boat,' suggested Nevill.

‘And didn't you find seaweed and shells, and wade in the sea and build castles and do things like that?'

‘We did when it was fine,' said Honor.

‘And was it often wet?'

‘No – yes - two days,' said Honor, meeting her mother's eyes and averting her own.

‘Well, that was not much out of three weeks. They do not seem to appreciate things, Hatton. When I was a child, I should have remembered the holiday for years.'

‘They will do the same, madam. And it has done what we wanted of it. But the truth is that children are happier at home. And it is fortunate it is not the other way round.'

‘We found one shell that was not broken,' said Nevill, in further reassurance.

‘So you love your home, my little ones,' said Eleanor, making the best of her children's attitude. ‘Of course you are glad to be back again. And you have Father and Mother to welcome you. You have been without them all the time. So it couldn't be perfect, could it?'

‘We have Grandpa and Grandma too,' said Nevill. ‘And Grandma wasn't out, was she?'

‘Yes, you have Mother and Father and Grandma and Grandpa,' said Eleanor, adjusting the order of these personalities. ‘And your brothers and sisters, and your new governess coming tomorrow.'

‘He has Hatton,' said her youngest son.

‘It is the same nursery as Grandpa had, when he was a little boy like you.'

‘Not like him,' said Nevill.

‘Well, when he was as small as you. He used to play in it, as you do.'

‘Not as small as him; as small as Gavin.'

‘Yes, as small as you, and even smaller. He was here when he was a baby. You like to think of that, don't you?'

‘He couldn't come in it now,' said Nevill. ‘Hatton wouldn't let him.'

‘Now, Honor dear,' said Eleanor, turning from her son to her daughter, perhaps a natural step, ‘I hope you will try with this new governess, and not play and pay no attention, as you did with the last. You are old enough to begin to learn.'

‘I have been learning for a long time.'

‘It keeps Gavin back as well as you. And we should not do what is bad for someone else.'

‘It is only being with me, that makes Gavin learn at all.'

‘Well, well, dear, do your best. That is all we ask of you. But if you have such an opinion of yourself, we can expect a good deal of you.'

‘I only said I didn't keep Gavin back, when you said I did.'

‘Dear me, Hatton, girls are even less easy than boys,' said Eleanor, with a sigh.

‘It is the person you are talking to, that you don't think is easy,' said Gavin.

‘I daresay it sums up like that,' said his mother.

‘Father likes girls better,' said Honor.

‘He is a girlie,' said Nevill, recalling his father's attitude to his sisters. ‘He likes Father better too.'

‘You are a boy,' said Gavin. ‘As much a boy as I am.'

‘No, not as much. He is a little boy.'

‘Yes, yes, a little boy,' said Mullet, taking his hand and speaking for Eleanor's ears. ‘And now the little boy has had his breakfast, he must come and put on his coat for the garden.'

‘Like a girlie,' said Nevill, in a tone of making a condition.

‘Yes, like that. And when you come in, I will tell you a story about some children who had a new governess. You will all like that, won't you?'

‘I would rather have one about a wrecker,' said Gavin, who had hardly done justice to the influence of the sea.

Eleanor looked after Mullet and Nevill with a smile for Hatton.

‘You don't give me much of a welcome,' she said to the other children. ‘Do you think of me as an ordinary person, who may come in at any time?'

‘You do come in often,' said Gavin.

‘You must remember I am your mother.'

‘A lot of people are mothers. Hatton's sister is.'

‘My honest boy!' said Eleanor, suddenly kissing her son. ‘Now what is it, Honor dear? You seem put out about something. Do you know what it is, Gavin?'

‘It is when you make me out better than she is.'

‘Well, she does not always think people just alike, herself.'

‘I do when they are,' said Honor.

‘Well, I expect you are tired by your journey. Were they upset by the train, Hatton?'

‘Honor and Nevill were, madam. Gavin never is.'

‘I was sick almost the whole time,' said Honor.

‘Dear, dear, poor Hatton and Mullet!' said Eleanor, in a bracing tone. ‘Well, I must go and see if the others have anything that does not please them. We must not give all the attention to one part of the house.'

‘We didn't say we were not pleased,' said Gavin, when his mother had gone.

‘Neither did Mother,' said Honor. ‘But she palpably was not.'

Hatton dispatched the three to the garden in the charge of Mullet, who walked up and down telling stories, with them all hanging on to her arms. When the time for exercise was over, she was the only one who had had any exercise, and she had had a good deal.

Eleanor went to the schoolroom to visit the next section of her family. She found two girls and a boy seated at the table with their governess, engaged in scanning an atlas, which could only be surveyed by them singly, and therefore lent itself to slow progress. This was their customary rate of advance, as Miss Mitford was a person of easy pace, and it was the family practice to economize in materials rather than in time. It seldom struck Eleanor or Regan that a few shillings might be well spent. Shillings were never well spent to them, only by necessity or compulsion. Two governesses came under the last head, and money was allotted to the purpose, but to do them justice in the smallest possible amount.

‘Well, my dears,' said Eleanor, her tone rendered warm by her sense that these children probably differed from the others, ‘you have not been to the sea. You have been at home and been bright and happy all the time. I believe it never pays to do too much for children.'

‘No,' said James, the youngest of the three, making an accommodating movement.

‘You would just as soon be at home, wouldn't you?'

‘Yes.'

‘Wouldn't you, Isabel?'

‘Yes.'

‘Wouldn't you, my Venice?'

‘I am not quite sure. No, I don't think I would.'

‘You would like to go to the sea?' said Eleanor, with a surprise that would have seemed more natural to a witness of the late scene. ‘We must see about it next year. What do you think, Miss Mitford?'

Miss Mitford looked up in response, but not in response of any particular nature. She was a short, rather odd-looking woman of fifty, looking older than her age, with calm, green eyes, features so indeterminate that they seemed to change, and hair and clothes disposed in a manner which appeared to be her own, but had really been everyone's at the time when she grew up. It had seemed to her the mark of womanhood, and it still served that purpose. She was a person of reading and intelligence, but preferred a family to a school, and knew that by taking a post beneath her claims, she took her employers in her hand. She held them with unflinching calm and without giving any quarter, and criticism, after she had met it with surprise and had not bent to it, had not assailed her. Eleanor was hardly afraid of her, as she did not feel that kind of fear, but she hesitated to judge or advise her, and seldom inquired of her pupils' progress except of the pupils behind her back.