‘Do not abuse her indulgence, Uncle. Well, Mr Penrose, what sort of a morning?’
‘Well, to be frank, Miss Gaveston, not up to our standard. I am not disposed to make any complaint, as I think the family news is responsible. It is natural and perhaps not wholly undesirable that it should be so. And I hope we shall atone for it tomorrow.’
‘Now, little boy, what sort of hearing is this? And when Uncle has been thinking of you and your future! What kind of return is this to make?’
‘He did not know about that, dear,’ said Blanche. ‘He has been excited about his uncle, as you all have. And any difference for him will not be for a long time. We must allow him his share of the pleasure, so I think he might have a holiday this afternoon. We must not expect him to settle down so much sooner than anyone else. You have all been shaken out of yourselves, and no wonder. What do you say, Edgar?’
‘What you do, my dear. It is — it seems to me the thing to be said.’
‘And you, Mr Penrose?’ said Justine. ‘We should not dream of upsetting the routine without your sanction.’
‘Well, I should be disposed to be indulgent upon the occasion, Miss Gaveston.’
‘There, little boy, there is your holiday assured.’
‘Half holiday,’ said Aubrey.
‘I am afraid it is nearer a whole one than it should be.’
‘They will be able to go for a long walk’, said Blanche, ‘instead of having to be back by four.’
‘Well, really, Mother, I think Mr Penrose might have his share of the celebration. I should guess that he is inclined to shake the dust of this house off his feet. He has his own private life as much as we have.’
‘Well, Mr Penrose will do as he likes, dear. Aubrey can play by himself.’
‘It is very considerate, Mrs Gaveston.’
‘Am I big enough to play alone?’ said Aubrey.
‘No, you are not,’ said his sister. ‘You are incapable of managing your time. I will see that we both spend a pleasant and profitable afternoon.’
‘You have all stopped talking about my inheritance,’ said Dudley. ‘Does it mean that you think enough has been said about it? Miss Sloane does not seem to think so. But she may not know how much has been said.’
‘I have thought of nothing else since I heard of it, Uncle.’
‘Neither have I,’ said Aubrey. ‘I have a witness.’
‘Neither have I,’ said Dudley.
‘I should like to hear what your uncle is going to do for himself,’ said Blanche.
‘I doubt if we shall have that satisfaction, Mother,’ said Justine, ‘great as it would be. Uncle is a man of few and simple desires. Unless he has a house of his own, which heaven forbid as long as we are all in this one, it is hard to see how he is to spend so much on himself. He has his interests and occupations and his brother. More he does not ask of life.’
‘He has all of us as well,’ said Mark. ‘That cannot be left out of account. Anyhow it has not been.’
‘Our desires have a way of getting bigger with our incomes,’ said Matty. ‘Just as they have to get smaller with them. I have had the latter experience, and rejoice the more that all of you are to have the first.’
‘Miss Sloane shows a great patience with our family drama,’ said Mark. ‘I am too enthralled by it myself to wonder.’
‘I have come on your family at a dramatic moment. Patience is the last thing that is needed.’
‘That is what I should have thought,’ said Dudley. ‘I am wounded by Mark’s speech.’
‘Wait a moment, Miss Sloane, I am going to ask it,’ said Justine. ‘It is not a crime, if it is a little unconventional. Which do you consider the better to look at, my father or my uncle? Do not hesitate to say; they will not mind.’
‘I am afraid I do hesitate,’ said Maria, laughing. ‘And I had not thought of making a comparison.’
‘Oh, come, Miss Sloane, that is not quite ingenuous. People always think of it; it seems inevitable. They can’t see the one by the other, without summing up their respective characteristics and ranging them on different sides.’
‘Dear Justine, Miss Sloane had not thought of it,’ said Blanche. ‘She has told us.’
‘Well, she will think of it now, Mother, as I ask her to. I am sure she has never denied anyone without more reason.’
‘I have never met two people whom I should see less in terms of each other.’
‘Ah, now that is subtle, Miss Sloane. And I believe you are right. Now I come to consider, neither have I. It is simply superficial to talk as if one were a feeble copy of the other.’
‘It is worse than that,’ said Dudley. ‘It is too bad.’
‘They should give more attention to the comparison,’ said Edgar, smiling at the guest. ‘My daughter seems only to have grasped the essence of it at this moment.’
‘Oh, now, Father, you would like me to be perfect, wouldn’t you? Well, I am not, so you can make the best of it.’
‘Father may claim to have done so,’ said Clement.
‘I think we are better when we are greedy than when we are clever,’ said Mark. ‘The one quality is natural to us; the other is not.’
‘And your uncle can satisfy the one, but he can do nothing for the other,’ said Edgar, with another smile.
‘They might all do so much, Miss Sloane, if they would only apply themselves,’ said Blanche, pursuing the line of her children’s ability.
‘I suppose — have the arrangements you spoke of taken any form?’ said Edgar.
‘Not definitely, Father,’ said Justine, ‘but they are taking their course. Uncle has opened his purse in the way that I knew he would, as I indeed foretold, though my doing so raised an outcry. Clement is to have an allowance; Aubrey’s future is secure; the house benefits in whatever way you have arranged; and what your private and personal benefits are to be, we do not know. They are between you and him and will be left so.’
Blanche took something from a dish which Jellamy handed, as if it were no good to interpose.
‘And what is my Justine to have from the open purse?’
‘Oh, trust you to ask that, Father. My position is safe with you. Well, I am having peace of mind about Aubrey. It is what I asked and what was at once granted to me. I could think of no other need.’
‘Who was to depend on Father to that extent?’ said Clement to his brother.
‘Perhaps Justine did. If so, we see that she was right.’
‘Justine holds herself apart from my easy generosity,’ said Dudley, ‘so that to her I am what I have always been, simply her uncle.’
‘But you shall be more than that!’ said his niece. ‘I will not stand aside a moment longer. You shall be generous to me. I will take a yearly subscription to my pet charity, to my old men and women in the village. Yes, I think I can ask that, without feeling that I am piling up a life already loaded. And you need not tell me that it is forthcoming, because I know it is. Actually for myself I ask nothing, holding myself already too rich.’
‘And I have only felt that about myself for a few days. How much better you are than I am! And I already think I am poor.’
‘You will soon be right,’ said Mark.
‘You know I meant that a twentieth of a million was poor.’
‘One thing I say!’ said Justine, suddenly raising her hand. ‘One stipulation I make. Uncle shall feel free to break off these undertakings at any time, to stand as fully apart from them as if they had never been made. And this at any hint of demand from his own life. In one moment, at one fell swoop — at one swoop, what is his own is in his hands, to be deflected to his own purposes. It is on this understanding and this alone, that I subscribe to the engagements, and rejoice for other people and accept for myself.’
‘Well, that goes without saying, dear,’ said Blanche.