“Yes, even I have,” said Reuben. “But I feel it is rather a joke.”
“You will know it to-morrow. And part of it will cease to be hers.”
“And may we ask her age? She has lived for some years, as we all have.”
“I hardly know it. That is, I am not quite sure. It is a little more than mine, and so will balance the lack in it.”
“You can now be any age you please,” said Zillah. “It is true that everything has to be paid for.”
“Well, Merton has outdistanced you, Salomon,” said Sir Michael. “The one of you who seemed at a standstill. That is, there hasn’t been much about him of late.”
“It is no great feat, as I am always at a standstill.”
“I am not,” said Reuben. “I take my brave, little steps forward.”
“I feel I have outdistanced everyone,” said Merton. “I am uplifted to a height I had not known.”
“Well, make the most of it,” said Sir Michael. “It will not last. Well, we hope it will. I mean, may it last, of course.”
“How quickly you have found a house!” said Ada. “Have you been looking for one?”
“No, it is her own. She is living in it. I shall join her there. When I said I should hang up my hat in my wife’s hall, I meant it.”
“Well, your path is smooth,” said Sir Michael. “It might have been a rough one, as your parents feared.”
“It might. And I should still have taken it. I am not blind to my good fortune.”
“Merton is softened, like his path,” said Reuben.
“As he would be,” said Zillah. “We must be influenced by the ways we take.”
“Well, the hour of the meeting will come,” said Sir Michael. “It is an exciting thought. We have had no change in the family since Reuben was born. And that wasn’t much, as he was a third son.”
“Fate was against me from the first,” said his grandson. “I have trodden a hard way. It is really quite dignified.”
The hour came, and with it Alfred and Penelope to meet the newcomer. She was a tall, dark, quiet young woman, clearly more mature than Merton, with straight, rounded features, large, dark eyes, and a way of looking fully into people’s faces, as if in appreciation and interest. Merton was too sure of her appeal to show more than his usual consciousness.
“Well, here is the patriarch, my grandfather; his consort, my grandmother; his son, my father; his daughter-in-law, my mother; his daughter, my aunt. Oh, and his grandsons, my brothers.”
“I did not know I was a consort,” said Joanna. “Then I think Ada must be one.”
“I have avoided the stigma,” said Penelope. “And have had no credit for it.”
“My maternal great-aunt, Miss Merton; my maternal grandfather, also of the name.”
“Are we not to hear another name?” said Ada. “The one we are waiting to hear.”
“It is Hetty,” said its owner, in quiet, even tones. “The only one to all of you. The other I am going to share with you. I must learn that it is mine.”
“There will be more for you to share,” said Sir Michael. “We will give you all we can.”
“It cannot be much,” said Hetty, smiling. “What you have can only be your own.”
“I would give all I could,” said Joanna. “But I can’t think of anything.”
Hetty laughed, with her eyes on Joanna’s face.
“You make such a difference to so many people. You are making it to me.”
“It is a thing that will be true of you,” said Salomon. “I hope Merton will let me say it.”
“I knew he would not let me,” said Reuben. “So I had to waste it. It did come into my mind.”
“Merton’s parents await judgement,” said Hereward, standing by his wife. “We need not speak of the one we have made.”
“Neither need I,” said Hetty. “I envy Merton the background to his life. It must mean so much to have one.”
“Well, now it will be yours,” said Sir Michael. “With everything else that is his.”
“I feel less poor already. I see how poor I have been.”
“My brothers’ names can come later,” said Merton. “When we have had some meat and drink.”
Sir Michael led Hetty to the head of the dinner table. Merton sat by her, and the others fell at random into place. Alfred and Hereward were opposite to Hetty, and found her resting her eyes on them.
“What a pair to have before me! I am not used to people on the heights.”
“Merton does not see me in that way,” said Hereward. “He thinks lightly of his father’s place.”
“It may be too far removed from him. It is yours and belongs to yourself. He must see it from a distance, and judge it as he can.”
“You do not put him above us all in everything?”
“I put him in the place he is right to fill. The place that is his own.”
“What do you say to it, Merton?” said Salomon.
“Oh, Hetty is not versed in such things as yet. She is content to be simply herself. She never pretends to be anything she is not.”
“You are brought to this! I have no conception of your state.”
“No, I can see you have none.”
“You are my first grand-daughter,” said Alfred. “And I am your second grandfather. I must seem to you a superfluous figure.”
“How can I say what you are? What do I know of you and your work? What can I know?”
“What of me and my work?” said Hereward, in a lower tone, as his son looked aside. “Have you not your knowledge there?”
“Yes, I have,” said Hetty, meeting his eyes. “But it is still only mine. Merton’s time for it has not come. We don’t know the whole of each other yet.”
“Would you dare to tell him the truth?”
“I have dared to tell him part. And he recognised my courage and disputed my judgement. But he will grow towards it. I am older than he is, you know.”
“Surely not much,” said Alfred.
“Five years. A good deal for a woman over a man. I should be content to go further than he does. I have gone further.”
“And you are content?” said Hereward, smiling. “And so am I.”
“Come, come, you elderly men,” said Sir Michael. “Is Merton to have a share of his future wife? Or are you taking his place?”
“They have their own place, as he has,” said Hetty. “And I am learning mine.”
“She has a liking for men two or three times her age,” said Merton. “It is a tribute to me that she accepted a younger one.”
“They may have a liking for her,” said Sir Michael. “They can see age in their own way.”
“I would ask no one’s opinion of her. I have my own.”
“My daughter!” said Ada. “It would be safe to ask mine.”
“I might say the same,” said Hetty, meeting her eyes. “Indeed I have said it. To myself, when I first came in.”
“I must appear another superflous figure,” said Penelope.
“Well, luxuries may seem superfluous things. But they can be among the best.”
“What will you say of me?” said Zillah. “I am more of a problem. Even you may be at a loss.”
“I will say nothing. What can I say? To you, to whom we owe everything, even the great man himself.”
“What is that?” said Hereward, as they left the room, seeming just to catch the words. “Yes, we may talk to each other. We are not to separate to-night. We are all to have our share of you. And I will have mine. Tell me what the talk was about.”
“Why should I tell you what you know?”
“Well, I will understand you. And it was not Merton’s voice I heard.”
“No, it was mine. I know his would be his own. I know his work is different from yours. I wish it was not. And he does not see yours as I do. I wish he did. I wish he could see it as it is.”
“Well, with you I wish he could. As much as would be of use to him. It need be no more. I would not be of use to me. And I do not serve myself.”