A Family and a Fortune (28 page)

‘I should not want to do so, if I had it. I know that I have not been here for the last thirty years. I shall begin my life with you when I begin it. That is to be the future. We all have our past.'

‘And we will share with you what we can of ours.'

‘I hope you will. I should like it.'

‘Is Justine glad that Father is going to marry Miss Sloane?' said Aubrey to Mark.

‘She is glad for Father not to be alone. It is wise to make the best of it. We can do nothing for people who are dead.'

‘It is a good thing that Mother does not know, for all that,' said Aubrey, with an odd appeal in his tone.

‘Yes, we are glad to be sure of it.'

Aubrey turned away with a lighter face.

‘Edgar,' said Matty in a distinct tone, ‘I have been thinking that I must be making my plans. Come a little nearer; I cannot shout across that space; and I cannot get up and come to you, can I? The wedding will be my business, as Maria's home is with me. And I think I can make the cottage serve our needs. You will like a simple wedding, with things as they are? And it cannot be for some months?'

‘I shall know about such things when I am told,'

‘I thought we ought to save you that, Aunt Matty,' said Justine, sitting on her aunt's chair and speaking into her ear. ‘It does not seem that it ought to devolve on Mother's sister.'

‘Why, you are not sparing yourself, dear, and you are her daughter. And that is as close a tie, except that its roots are of later growth. I shall be doing what I have done before for your father. It is fortunate that I am so near. And I think we need not be troubled for your mother. If we feel like that, this should not be happening. And she will go forward with us in our hearts.'

‘No,' said Edgar, suddenly. ‘She will not go forward. We shall and she will not.'

‘Her wishes and her influence will go on.'

‘They may, but she will not do so. She has had her share, what it has been.'

‘I can see her in all her children,' said Maria. ‘I shall get to know her better as I get to know them.'

‘And yet Edgar can say that she does not go on.'

‘She does not, herself. It will make no difference to her.'

‘We cannot serve the past,' said Mark, ‘only fancy that we do so.'

‘Only remember it,' said Justine, looking before her.

Maria and Edgar exchanged a smile, telling each other that these days had to be lived. Matty saw it and was silent.

‘I shall be best man,' said Dudley. ‘I think that people will look at me more than at Edgar. I shall be a man with a story, and he will be one who is marrying a second time, and the first is much the better thing.'

‘You need not worry about any of it,' said Matty, with apparent reassurance. ‘People's memories are short. They too will feel that they cannot help what is gone, and they will not waste their interest. You will soon be a man without a story again.'

‘Do you resent a tendency to look forward?' said Clement.

‘No, dear, but it seems to me that people might look back sometimes. Not for the sake of what they can do for the past, of course; just for the sake of loyalty and constancy and other old-fashioned things. My life is as real to me in the past as it is in the present, my sister as much alive as she was in her youth. But all these things are a matter of the individual.'

‘Aunt Matty,' said Justine, in a low tone, bringing her face near to her aunt's, ‘this house is moving towards the future. It is perhaps not: a place for so much talk of the past.'

‘They are a matter of age, I think,' said Mark. ‘The young are said to live in the future, the middle-aged in the present, and the old in the past. I think it may be roughly true.'

‘And I am so old, dear? Your old and lonely aunt? Well, I feel the second but hardly the first as yet. But I shall go downhill quickly now. You won't have to give me so much in the present. I shall be more and more dependent upon the past, and that is dependent upon myself, as things are to be.'

‘People are known to be proud of odd things,' said Dudley, ‘but I think that going downhill is the oddest of all.'

‘Yes, you forget about that, don't you?' said Matty, in a sympathetic tone. ‘About that and the past and everything. It is the easiest way.'

‘Miss Sloane, what has your life been up till now?' said Justine, in a tone of resolutely changing the subject. ‘We may as well know that piece of the past. You know our corresponding part of it.'

‘The man whom I was going to marry died,' said Maria, turning to her and speaking in her usual manner. ‘And I did live in the past. It may not have been the best thing, but it seemed to me the only one.'

‘Then long live the future!' said Justine slipping off her aunt's chair and raising her hand. ‘Long live the future and the present. Let the dead past bury its dead. Yes, I will say it and not flinch. It is better and braver in that way. Mother would feel it so. Aunt Matty, join with us in a toast to the future.'

‘Aunt Matty raises her hand with a brave, uncertain smile,' said Aubrey, as he himself did this.

‘Now all to the fore,' said Justine, ‘and in a natural way, as if you were thinking of Father and not of yourselves. It is his occasion, not ours, you know. People do not return from a honeymoon every day.'

‘It is not the first time for Father,' said Mark. ‘And Maria planned it for herself before.'

‘I wonder if Father will think of last time,' said Aubrey.

‘Now I should not wonder that sort of thing,' said his sister. ‘Just take it all simply and do what comes your way. The occasion is not without its demand. I do not find myself looking forward with too much confidence.'

‘Boys, can you look your father straight in the eyes?' said Aubrey.

‘Will he want just that?' said Mark. ‘Will he be able to do it with Uncle?'

‘Oh, why should he not?' said Clement. ‘He need not hang his head for behaving like a natural man.'

‘That is a thing I never thought to see him do.'

‘I can still only think of Uncle as he was at the wedding,' said Justine. ‘Easy, self-controlled, courteous! It was a lesson how to do the difficult thing. We have only to think of that example, if we find ourselves at a loss.'

‘Is Father in love with Maria?' said Aubrey in a casual tone.

‘Yes, we must say that he is. The signs are unmistakable. We could not be in doubt.'

Aubrey did not ask if the same signs had been seen between his father and mother: he found he could not.

‘Come, Mr Penrose,' said Justine, as the latter edged through the group. ‘If you want to slip away before the arrival, we will not say you nay. We know that it is our occasion and not yours.'

Mr Penrose responded to this reminder by hastening his steps.

‘Were you wondering about me?' said Dudley, approaching from the stairs. ‘The scene would lose its point if I were not here. I shall not try to acquit myself as well as I did at the wedding. There are not enough people here to make it worth while. I hope the memory of me then will remain with them.'

‘It remains with us, Uncle.'

‘Justine spoke quietly and simply,' said Aubrey.

‘That is not what I meant. Does it remain with Mr Penrose?'

‘Yes, indeed, Mr Dudley. Mrs Penrose and I found it a most enjoyable occasion. We have several times spoken of it.'

‘Oh, away with you, Mr Penrose,' said Justine, with a laugh. ‘Your heart is not in the occasion as ours is. And indeed why should it be?'

Mr Penrose did not admit that he saw no reason.

‘I am most interested, Miss Gaveston.'

‘Of course you are, most interested; and what a feeling
compared with ours! Away with you to the sphere which claims your feeling.'

Mr Penrose obeyed, but with some feeling over for the sphere he left.

‘Oughtn't Aunt Matty to be here?' said Mark.

‘No,' said his sister. ‘No. I decided against it. You do not suppose that I have not given the matter a thought? We must break the rule that she is to be here on every occasion. We must not hand on such rules to Maria, ready made. Things cannot be quite the same for Aunt Matty here in future. Maria has a debt to her and doubtless will repay it, but the manner and method thereof must be her own. It may not be her choice to be confronted by her husband's sister-in-law on her first home-coming. Aunt Matty will be with us at dinner, and that is as much as I felt I could take on myself.'

‘You and I are wasted on this occasion, Justine,' said Dudley. ‘It must be enough for us if we have our own approval. My trouble is that I only care for other people's.'

‘Uncle, you know you have enough of that.'

‘Is Maria very old to be a bride?' said Aubrey.

‘Not as old as Father to be a bridegroom,' said Mark.

‘Well, men marry later than women,' said Justine.

‘Welcome to the bride and bridegroom,' said Aubrey, raising his hand.

‘Welcome to your father and his wife,' said his sister gravely.

‘Welcome to my brother and the woman who preferred him to me,' said Dudley. ‘I am equal to it.'

‘I should not be, Uncle,' said Justine, in a gentle aside. ‘I should put it out of my mind, once and for all. That is the way to gain your own good opinion and mine. Oh, here are the travellers! I feel we ought to raise a cheer.'

Aubrey gave her a glance.

‘I should suppress the impulse,' said Clement.

‘Oh, you know what I mean.'

‘Well, so would everyone else.'

The scene was over in a minute. Maria was simple and ready, kind and natural; Edgar was stilted and sincere; and
both were themselves. Dudley shook hands with both as if after an ordinary absence. His natural spareness and the flush of the occasion covered his being worn and pale. Maria kissed her stepchildren as if she had thought of nothing else, and took the head of the tea table without demur. She made some reference to Blanche in the course of supplying her family, and joined in the talk of her which followed. They felt that the situation was safe, and had a sense of permanence and peace. They had begun to talk when a trap drove up to the door.

‘Aunt Matty!' said Aubrey.

‘That high trap!' said Justine.

‘Is she not expected?' said Edgar.

‘Not until dinner, Father. I thought it was all arranged. And that fidgety horse! Will she ever get down?'

Dudley and Mark and Jellamy were perceived to be approaching the scene, and Matty was set upon the ground.

‘Perhaps she has come to welcome me,' said Maria.

‘She has come for no other reason,' said Clement.

‘She comes!' said Aubrey.

Matty came in and went straight up to Maria, her eyes seeking no one else.

‘My dear, I was so sorry not to be here to welcome you. The trap I had ordered did not come in time, and Miss Griffin had to go for it. I would not have had you arrive without a familiar face from the old world. You have so many from the new one.'

‘I have had a very good welcome.'

‘Yes, they are good children and mean to continue to be so. They are my own nephews and niece. But I feel that I am the bridge between the old life and the new, and I could not let you cross the gulf without it. The gulf is so much the widest for you.'

‘I am safely on the other side, with the help of them all.'

‘So you are, dear, and I will sit down and see it. I will have my chair, if I may. Thank you, Dudley; thank you, Mark; thank you, my little nephew. You are all ready and willing; you only want a little reminder. I will sit near to Maria, as it is she who is glad of my presence. Do not let me
displace you, Edgar; that is not what I meant. We will sit on either side of her and share her between us. We are used to that sort of relation. I want to feel that this second time that I give you your life companion, is as much of a success between us as the first.' Matty gave Edgar a swift, bright look and settled her dress.

There was a pause.

‘We did not know you were coming,' said Justine, ‘or we would have sent for you.'

‘You asked me to come, dear. I should have done so, of course, but you did remember the formality. But it was for dinner that you said. I did not know that they were expected so early. I only found it out by accident.'

‘We did not mean to give a wrong impression.'

‘No, dear? But you said for dinner, I think.'

‘I did not know you expected - that you would want to be here for their arrival. We thought they would have a rest, and that you would see them later.'

‘Have a rest, dear?' said Matty, with a glance round and a twitch of her lips.

‘Well, stay with us for a little while, and then go upstairs by themselves and meet everyone at dinner.'

‘Maria never rests in the day, even after a journey,' said Matty, in the casual tone of reference to someone completely known to her.

‘I am finding all this a rest,' said Maria.

Matty looked round again, with her mouth conscientiously controlled, but with a gleam in her eyes.

‘Well, can it be true?' said Clement.

‘I am finding it a great strain,' murmured Aubrey.

‘Hush, don't whisper among yourselves,' said their sister.

‘I think I will have some tea, Justine dear,' said Matty. ‘Or am I to remember that I was only asked to dinner?'

‘Really, Aunt Matty, I shall not reply to that.'

‘I am afraid I am pouring out the tea,' said Maria, laughing and taking up the pot.

‘Are you, dear? I thought you were having a rest, and that Justine would still be directing things. I have had no directions except from her.'

‘You could not have them from me until I returned.'

‘You did not write to me, I thought you would want to arrange your first day yourself.'

‘I did not think of it. I was content just to come home.'