‘So you meet an occasion when you do not find me second to my brother.’
‘Oh, I do not know that, Mr Dudley,’ said Mr Penrose, laughing. ‘I have never had any feeling of that kind. One naturally comes to the elder brother first. That has been all the distinction in my mind.’
‘So good news runs apace,’ said Edgar.
‘How did you hear, Mr Penrose?’ said Justine.
‘From your manservant at the door. I do not generally talk to the man, but today he addressed me and volunteered the information. And if I may say so, he was full of the most pleasant and spontaneous goodwill towards the family.’
‘I think we could not expect him to be silent upon such a piece of news.’
‘Indeed no, Miss Gaveston,’ said Mr Penrose, laughing. ‘Not upon the accession of a quarter of a million to the family. It would indeed be much to expect.’
‘It is about a twentieth of a million,’ said Dudley.
‘Well, well, Mr Dudley, putting it in round numbers.’
‘But surely numbers are not as round as that. What is the good of numbers? I thought they were an exact science.’
‘Well, taking the bearing of the sum upon ordinary life, shall we say?’
‘No, we will not say it. We will say a twentieth.’
‘Well, we may as well be numerically accurate,’ said Mr Penrose, not pretending to appreciate any further difference. ‘Come, Aubrey, we must be setting out. I suppose, Mr Gaveston — I suppose this modification of your affairs will not affect your plans for Aubrey’s education?’
‘No, no, not at all. As far as I can see, not at all.’
‘Oh, no, Mr Penrose, not in the least,’ said Justine. ‘There is no difference in Aubrey’s prospects.’
‘Thank you, Miss Gaveston, thank you. You do not mind my asking? It is best to be clear on such a matter.’
‘Poor little Mr Penrose, he went quite pale,’ said Justine. ‘It would be sad if our rise in fortune should spell disadvantage for him.’
‘Let us talk of something else,’ said Dudley. ‘We have had enough of me and my affairs. Of course I don’t mean that. I am so worried about the confusion in people’s minds. Mr Penrose has thoroughly upset me. You don’t think he has any influence on Aubrey?’
‘None,’ said Mark.
‘Oh, I am sure he has,’ said Blanche, who had half heard.
‘Well, that would be rather much to expect,’ said Justine, ‘that a tutor should be accepted as an influence by a pupil. But dear Uncle! I don’t think I have seen you so much engaged with your own experience in all my life.’
‘There, wealth has already ruined me. And I have not got wealth. I must be in the stage where I only have its disadvantages. I have heard of that. Do you think that people will think more of me or less?’
‘More of you,’ said Clement.
‘Yes, well, I think we can hardly expect them not to do that in a way,’ said Blanche.
‘So they have not thought as much of me as they could?’
‘I am sure they have in one sense, in any sense that matters.’
‘Little Mother, you are coming out very nicely on this occasion,’ said Justine. ‘We could not have a better lead. And the occasion is something of a test.’
Blanche gave her daughter a rather absent smile, put her needle into her work, and rose and went to the window.
‘Father and Matty, Edgar! I thought I caught a glimpse of them. Coming up the drive! Both of them and on foot! It must have taken them half an hour. What can it be?’
‘I will go out and help them to come in,’ said Justine.
‘What can Justine do?’ said Clement. ‘Carry them in, in her strong young arms?’
‘It would be a useful piece of work,’ said Mark. ‘They can hardly be fit to take another step.’
‘Oh, I am not at all ashamed of being strong!’ called his sister. ‘I have no wish to be the other thing. It would seem to me a very odd ambition. I like to be a good specimen physically, as well as in every other way.’
‘I think we might all like that,’ said Edgar, smiling and at once changing his tone. ‘If arms are needed we all have them.’
‘I will go,’ said Dudley. ‘I must keep my simple ways. I must not let myself become different. That sounds as if I have admired myself, and in a way I have.’
‘Now, Grandpa dear, come in,’ said Justine, keeping her eyes on Oliver as if to see that he followed her direction. ‘We will have you established in a minute. Don’t have any misgiving.’
‘Thank you, my dear, you take it all off me; I have none.’
‘Well, dear ones all,’ said Matty, pausing in the door as if she could go no further, ‘so here is a great occasion. I am come to share it with you, to rejoice in your joy. I could not remain in my little house and feel that so much had come — so much more had come to you in your big one, without coming to add my sympathy to all you have. For your happiness is mine. It shall be. And I shall have plenty if I can find it like that. And it is a lesson I have learnt, one that has come my way. And it isn’t a hard lesson, to rejoice in the good of those so dear.’
‘My dear, nothing has come to us. It is to Dudley,’ said Blanche, emerging from her sister’s embrace.
‘Yes, and there is a difference, isn’t there?’ said Matty in an arch manner. ‘And we are all to see it? Well, we can’t, and that is flat, as the boys would say. And that is a great compliment to him and to you.’
‘When do we say it,’ said Mark.
‘You can take that view too readily, Aunt Matty. Of course there is a difference,’ said Justine.
‘But Justine ought to sympathize with Aunt Matty in the idea,’ said Aubrey.
‘Of course, yes, of course,’ said Matty, looking at Dudley.
‘And you will let them say so? Well, I will not, I promise you. I will guard your reputation, I who know you almost as a brother. My sister’s brother must be partly mine, as Blanche and I have always shared our good things. Now let me get to a chair and have my share of the news.’
‘How did you hear?’ said Clement.
‘Well, well, little birds flit about the chairs of people who are tied to them. And it would be rather a sad thing if they did not, as they would be the last to hear so much, when it seems that they ought to be the first. So the news came, I won’t say how.’
‘I will do so,’ said her father. ‘It came through a tradesman’s lad, who comes to our house after yours, or who comes to it on the way to yours and today chose to come again on his way back.’
‘So Jellamy was the bird,’ said Mark.
‘Well, anyhow we heard,’ said his aunt. ‘But I should have liked to hear it from one of you, coming running down to tell me.’
‘We should have been down in a few minutes,’ said Justine.
‘Would you, dear? But the minutes passed and nobody came. And so we came up to hear for ourselves.’
‘A bold step for anyone tied to a chair,’ muttered Clement.
‘And came on foot!’ said Blanche. ‘Whatever made you do that?’
‘Well, dear, what were we to do?’ said her sister, laughing and glancing at Edgar.
‘You could have waited a little while.’
‘Well, it is true that the occupation palled,’ said Oliver.
‘I expect Miss Griffin was very interested,’ said Justine.
‘Well, now, let us settle down to hear the story,’ said Matty, in a tone of leaving a just annoyance, smoothing her dress in preparation for listening. ‘The full news of this happy quarter of a million. Let us hear it all from the first.’
‘My dear, it is not as much as that. It is not a quarter as much; it is about a fifth as much,’ said Blanche. ‘It is barely a fifth. It is about a twentieth of a million.’