Matty was indifferent to her father’s criticism and knew that her talk diverted him.
‘And then her own little, charitable ways, a mixture of daughter and sister and lady bountiful! So full of affection and kindness and yet with her own little sharpness, just our old Blanche! And her dear Justine’ — Matty put her hand to her lips and fell into mirth — ‘so sure of her right to improve us all and so satisfied with it! So pleased with her effort to influence her aunt, who has faced so much more than she could conceive! Dear child, may she never even have to attempt it. Well, we are not all alike and perhaps it is as well. Perhaps it is good that we are all on our different steps in the human scale. And there are good things on each level. In some ways we might take a leaf out of her book.’
‘We might, but I do not think of it, and I do not ask it of you.’
‘It is naughty to say it, but does she remind you of that church worker at home? Someone so good and useful that everyone loved her and no one admired her? Now how unkind and malicious! I am quite ashamed.’
‘Have I met a person of that kind?’
‘You must remember poor Miss Dunn at home.’
‘Why should I single her out of all that I remember? And how could I guess her employment?’
‘The coat and the collar and the shoes,’ said Matty, again in mirth.
‘They both wear such things, I grant you. I do the same and shall do it still for a short time.’
‘Poor Miss Griffin, you were the target. You might have been a little dark slave or a wee beastie in a trap, from the way she spoke. We do not move every day, do we? It has only been once in thirty years.’
Miss Griffin felt that there was some reproach in the rareness of the step, though she would willingly have taken it oftener.
‘She meant to be very kind, I am sure.’
‘She meant to be a little stern with me, just a tiny bit severe. But I did not mind. She is my dear, good niece and wants to improve the world and the people in it, Aunt Matty into the bargain.’
‘They might be the better for it,’ said Oliver, ‘but it is not her business.’
‘She feels it is, and so we must let her do it. We must take it up as a funny little cross and carry it with us.’
‘Why do that? Why not close her mouth upon things which are not her concern? That is a thing you can do. I have observed it.’
‘Edgar is a handsome man,’ said Matty in another tone. ‘He was very tall and distinguished in this little room. Oh, wasn’t it funny, the way they kept talking about it? Calling it snug and cosy. We might be cottagers.’
‘That is what we are, though your sister did not allow it.’
‘And Justine said that she was glad we were safe in it. We had no other refuge, had we?’
‘I cannot tell you of one. So we have our cause for thankfulness. But it is not for her to point it out. She seems to me to have greater cause.’
‘Mr Gaveston and Mr Dudley are not so much alike when you get to know them,’ said Miss Griffin.
‘They are of the same type, but Mr Gaveston is the better example,’ said Matty, who maintained the full formal distance between herself and her companion, in spite of her habit of frankness before her.
‘I like Mr Dudley’s face better.’
‘Do you? It is not the better face. It has not the line or the symmetry. It is a thought out of drawing. But they are a fine pair of brothers.’
‘There is something in Mr Dudley’s face that makes it quite different from Mr Gaveston’s, I hardly know how to say what I mean.’
‘That might be said of any two people. They are not just alike, of course.’
‘Mr Dudley’s face has a different kind of attraction.’
‘There is only one kind, of the one we were talking of,’ said Matty in a tone which closed the subject.
‘Miss Griffin has found another,’ said Oliver, ‘or has fancied it. But why talk of the fellows’ looks? They are not women. And both of you are, so it is wise to leave the matter.’
‘Was Mr Dudley talking to you outside?’ said Matty in a sudden, different tone to Miss Griffin.
‘No — yes — he just said a word, and then went out to look at the night, into the porch,’ said Miss Griffin, who told a falsehood when she could see no other course.
Oliver had heard the voices in the hall, but he did not speak. He never crossed the barrier into the women’s world. If he had done so, he would have had to protect Miss Griffin and anger his daughter; and he felt unequal to either of these things, which would have tried the strength of a younger man.
‘Did you notice the way they set off home?’ said Matty, with a return of mirth. ‘I saw them from the window. My eyes are still alert for what they can see, though I am tied to my chair. Blanche leading the way, and Justine trying to keep up and to keep step, and failing in both in spite of her youth and her strength! And the two men walking behind, as tranquil as if they were unconscious of the feminine creatures in front! Blanche leading a group is one of my earliest memories. Her stiff, little legs marching on, how they come back to me! And they are so little different, the active, determined, little legs. How much of her height is in her body! Well, my legs are not so much to boast of now. I have not my old advantage. Dear, dear, it is a funny thing, a family. I can’t help feeling glad sometimes that I have had no part in making one.’
‘Why try to help it? It is well to be glad of anything, and you do not too often seem so. Though some people might not choose just that reason.’
‘Well, mine is not a lot which calls for much gladness. It needs some courage to find any cause for it.’
‘So courage is the word for your talk of your sister. We could find others.’
‘Blanche and I are the closest friends. I am going to rejoice in being the elder sister again. You and she are the only people who see me as I was, and not as I am, the poor, baffled, helpless creature who has to get her outlet somehow. Yes, I was bright and young once. Even Miss Griffin remembers part of that time.’
‘Yes, indeed I do; indeed you were,’ said Miss Griffin.
‘Miss Griffin was even younger,’ said Oliver, bringing a new idea to both his hearers as he rose to leave them.
‘Yes, I was a naughty, sprightly person,’ continued Matty after a moment’s pause, during which the idea left her. ‘Always looking for something on which to work my wits. Something or someone; I fear it did not matter as long as my penetration had its exercise. Well, we can’t choose the pattern on which we are made. And perhaps I would not alter mine. Perhaps there is no need to meddle with it, eh, Miss Griffin?’
Miss Griffin was standing with her hand on her chair, thinking of the next step in her day. She gave a faint start as she realized her plight and saw the look on Matty’s face. The next moment she heard her voice.
‘Don’t go dragging away from the table like that. Either move about and get something done, or don’t pretend to do anything. Just posing as being a weary drudge will not get us anywhere.’
‘Perhaps the things which have made me that, have got us somewhere,’ said Miss Griffin, in an even, oddly hopeless tone, with little idea that the words on her lips marked a turning point in her life.
‘You need not answer like that. That is not going to begin, so you need not think it is. I do not expect to have my words taken up as if I were a woman on the common line. I am a very exceptional person and in a tragic position, and you will have to grasp it, or you are no good to me. And going off in that way, pretending not to hear, taking advantage of my helplessness! That is a thing of such a dreadful meanness that no one would speak to you if he knew it; no one would go near you; you would be shunned and spat upon!’