‘There have to be people there or giving would be no good.’
‘We are all there together,’ said Blanche, who looked excited and confused. ‘Edgar’s sister will be a sister to me, as his brother has been my brother.’
‘We have always valued the relation,’ said Matty, taking Blanche’s hand. ‘And now we are to be three instead of two, we shall have even more to value. I must feel that I also am accepting. I shall try to feel it and not dwell upon what I relinquish.’
‘I do not feel that I am losing anything. I know Dudley too well.’
‘Well, if I feel I am giving up a little, I yield it gladly, feeling that others’ gain is more than my loss, or more important. For I have been a dependent person who has had to make demands; and now there has come a demand on me, I am glad to meet it fully. I have had my share of weakness and welcome a position where I have some of the strength.’
‘I need not talk about what I am accepting,’ said Maria, ‘in this house where it is known. I am giving all I have in return.’
‘Simple and telling, Miss Sloane, as we should have expected,’ said Justine. ‘But we did not need you to say it, and hope that it was not at any cost. And we will all give you on our side what is right and meet. And rest assured, Aunt Matty, that we are not unmindful of your sacrifice. If we seem to be a little distant today, it is because the march of affairs is carrying us with it. Let us make our little sally and return in course.’
‘Edgar, we must have a word from you,’ said Matty. ‘It may seem hard when you are giving up the most, but you are a person from whom we expect much.’
‘Surely not in that line,’ said Clement.
‘Well, Aunt Matty, I think it is hard,’ said Justine. ‘And you have given the reason. Well, just a word, and then we must make a move. We must eat even on the day of Uncle’s engagement. Uncle’s engagement! Who could know what the words mean to us?’
‘I think that will do for my speech,’ said Edgar.
‘Then that is enough,’ said Justine, taking his arm and setting out for the dining room.
‘Dudley must sit by Miss Sloane,’ said Blanche, ‘and then that is the whole duty of them both.’
‘Shall I say my little original word?’ said Aubrey.
‘Now, little boy, silence is the best kind of word from you.’
‘I should like to see Clement come out of himself.’
‘You go back into yourself and stay there.’
‘Does Miss Sloane know how bad notice is for Clement?’
‘You must forgive him, Miss Sloane; he is excited,’ said Justine, giving an excuse which both satisfied the truth and silenced her brother.
‘Blanche, your cough is worse,’ said Matty. ‘I believe you ought to be in bed.’
‘I could not be, dear, on a day like this. What would happen to them all? I am indispensable.’
‘You are indeed, my dear. That is what I mean.’
‘Mother was condemned to remaining in one room,’ said Justine, ‘but I had not the heart to carry out the sentence. Our little leader shut up alone, with the rest of us observing this celebration! My feelings baulked at it.’
‘It is a mistake to be all heart and no head,’ said Clement.
‘I am quite well,’ said his mother. ‘I am only a little worked up. I cannot sit calmly through a day like this. I was never a phlegmatic person. I feel so keenly what affects other people. I get taken right out of myself. I almost feel that I could rise up and float above you all. I don’t know when I have felt so light all through myself. I don’t believe that even your uncle feels as much lifted above his level.’
‘I see that people really do rejoice in others’ joy,’ said Dudley.
‘You have done your share of it, Uncle,’ said Justine. ‘And it is well that something else has come in time. A spell of natural selfishness will do you good. Give yourself up to it. We have schooled ourselves for the experience. It will be a salutary one. And a proportion of your thoughts will return to us, supported by someone else’s.’
‘So for the time I have no uncle,’ said Aubrey.
‘You will have a second aunt, dear,’ said Matty. ‘Come and sit by your first one. Aunts can be a compensation, and you shall find that they can.’
‘Perhaps I shall be Miss Sloane’s especial nephew.’
‘You do not deserve it, but I have an idea that you may be,’ said Justine. ‘Naughty little boy, to have a way of being people’s favourite and knowing it! Confess now, Miss Sloane, that you already look upon him with a partial eye.’
Maria smiled at Aubrey but was not in time to check a glance at his brothers.
‘Ah, now, you may not be so much the chosen person this time. You can take it to heart and retire into the background,’ said Justine, as Aubrey did both these things.
‘Mother, you don’t seem to know what you are doing,’ said Mark. ‘You keep on beginning to eat and forgetting and beginning again. You have not accomplished a mouthful in the last ten minutes.’
‘I am a little wrought up, dear. I can’t treat this as an ordinary day. Your uncle has never been engaged before.’
‘Never and may not be again,’ said Clement. ‘He will not spoil Mother’s appetite many times.’
Blanche began to laugh, pursuing something with her fork and continuing her mirth as she had continued her tears, as if she had not the strength to overcome it.
‘Mother, you are over excited,’ said Justine. ‘You are on the point of becoming hysterical. Not that that is any great matter. It is pleasant for Uncle in a way to see how you feel yourself involved in his life. It is not your own interest that looms large to you, is it?’
Blanche looked up as if she did not follow the words.
‘You are faint from want of food, Blanche,’ said Edgar. ‘You ate nothing at breakfast. You must make an effort.’
‘I can’t make an effort,’ said his wife, in another tone. ‘I don’t feel well enough. And I do not like being told what I am to do. I am used to doing what I choose. I am able to judge for myself.’ She thrust her plate against her glass, and sat watching the result in a sort of childish relief in having wreaked her feeling.
‘Mother is not herself,’ said Justine, rising to deal with the damage, and speaking for her mother s ears, though not directly to her. ‘She is at once more and less than herself, shall we say?’
Blanche watched the process of clearing up with vague interest.
‘That is one of the best table napkins,’ she said, reaching towards it. ‘That wine does not stain, does it? I only put them out last week,’ Her voice died away and she sat looking before her as if she were alone.
‘We must take — it would be well to take her temperature,’ said Edgar.
‘That was in my mind, Father. I was waiting for the end of luncheon.’
‘Send Jellamy away,’ said Blanche suddenly. ‘He keeps on watching me.’
‘Jellamy can fetch a thermometer,’ said Mark, giving an explanatory smile to the man. ‘That will kill two birds with one stone.’
Jellamy vanished in complete good-will towards his mistress, and Blanche gave a laugh which passed to a fit of coughing, and sat still and shaken, with her eyes moving about in a motionless head.
‘Mother’s breathing is very quick and hard,’ said Clement.
‘She must have been feverish all day,’ said Mark.