“Not amusing, very hard work. Bimetallism you know.”
“Oh yes … well, I suppose, you want to go to sleep.”
“Mm … so tired. Goodnight, darling.”
“Goodnight.”
“Can I go and say good morning to the Princess, mummy?”
“I don't expect she's awake yet.”
“Please, mummy, may I go and see. I'll just peep and if she's asleep, go away.”
“I don't know what room she's in.”
“Galahad, my lady,” said Grimshawe who was putting out her clothes.
“Oh dear, why was she put there.”
“It was Mr. Last's orders, my lady.”
“Well, she's probably awake then.”
John slipped out of the room and trotted down the passage to Galahad. “May I come in?”
“Hullo, Johnny-boy. Come in.”
He swung on the handles of the door, half in, half out of the room. “Have you had breakfast? Mummy said you wouldn't be awake.”
“I've been awake a long time. You see I was once very badly hurt, and now I don't always sleep well. Even the softest beds are too hard for me now.”
“Ooh. What did you do? Was it a motor car accident?”
“Not an accident, Johnny-boy, not an accident … but come. It's cold with the door open. Look there are some grapes here. Would you like to eat them?”
John climbed on to the bed. “What are you going to do today?”
“I don't know yet. I haven't been told.”
“Well I'll tell you. We'll go to church in the morning because I have to and then we'll go and look at Thunderclap and I'll show you the place we jump and then you can come with me while I have dinner because I have it early and afterwards we can go down to Bruton wood and we needn't take nanny because it makes her so muddy and you can see where they dug out a fox in the drain just outside the wood, he nearly got away and then you can come and have tea in the nursery and I've got a little gramophone Uncle Reggie gave me for Christmas and it plays `When Father Papered the Parlour,' do you know that song. Ben can sing it, and I've got some books to show you and a picture I did of the battle of Marston Moor.”
“I think that sounds a lovely day. But don't you think I ought to spend some time with daddy and mummy and Lady Cockpurse?”
“Oh, them … besides it's all my foot about Lady Cockpurse having a tail. Please you will spend the day with me?”
“Well, we'll see.”
“She's gone to church with him. That's a good sign isn't it?”
“Well, not really, Polly. He likes going alone, or with me. It's the time he gossips to the village.”
“She won't stop him.”
“I'm afraid you don't understand the old boy altogether. He's much odder than you'd think.”
“I could see from your sermon that you knew the East, rector.”
“Yes, yes, most of my life.”
“It has an uncanny fascination, hasn't it?”
“Oh come on,” said John, pulling at her coat. “We must go and see Thunderclap.”
So Tony returned alone with the button-holes.
After luncheon Brenda said, “Why don't you show Jenny the house?”
“Oh yes, do.”
When they reached the morning room he said, “Brenda's having it done up.”
There were planks and ladders and heaps of plaster about.
“Oh, Teddy, what a shame. I do hate seeing things modernized.”
“It isn't a room we used very much.”
“No, but still …” she stirred the mouldings of fleur-de-lis that littered the floor, fragments of tarnished gilding and dusty stencil-work. “You know, Brenda's been a wonderful friend to me. I wouldn't say anything against her … but ever since I came here I've been wondering whether she really understands this beautiful place and all it means to you.”
“Tell me more about your terrible life,” said Tony, leading her back to the central hall.
“You are shy of talking about yourself, aren't you, Teddy? It's a mistake, you know, to keep things bottled up. I've been very unhappy too.”
Tony looked about him desperately in search of help; and help came. “Oh there you are,” said a firm, child's voice. “Come on. We're going down to the woods now. We must hurry, otherwise it will be dark.”
“Oh, Johnny-boy, must I really? I was just talking to daddy.”
“Come on. It's all arranged. And afterwards you're to be allowed to have tea with me upstairs.”
Tony crept into the library, habitable today, since the workmen were at rest. Brenda found him there two hours later. “Tony, here all alone? We thought you were with Jenny. What have you done with her?”
“John took her off … just in time before I said something rude.”
“Oh dear … well there's only me and Polly in the smoking room. Come and have some tea. You look all funny — have you been asleep?”
“We must write it down a failure, definitely.”
“What does the old boy expect? It isn't as though he was everybody's money.”
“I daresay it would all have been all right, if she hadn't got his name wrong.”
“Anyway, this lets you out. You've done far more than most wives would to cheer the old boy up.”
“Yes, that's certainly true,” said Brenda.
Four
Another five days; then Brenda came to Hetton again. “I shan't be here next week-end,” she said, “I'm going to stay with Veronica.”
“Am I asked?”
“Well you were, of course, but I refused for you. You know you always hate staying away.”
“I wouldn't mind coming.”
“Oh, darling, I wish I'd known. Veronica would have loved it so … but I'm afraid it will be too late now. She's only got a tiny house … to tell you the truth I didn't think you liked her much.”
“I hated her like hell.”
“Well then …?”
“Oh, it doesn't matter. I suppose you must go back on Monday? The hounds are meeting here on Wednesday, you know.”
“Are we giving them a lawner?”
“Yes, darling, you know we do every year.”
“So we do.”
“You couldn't stay down till then?”
“Not possibly, darling. You see if I miss one lecture I get right behind and can't follow the next. Besides I am not mad keen to see the hounds.”
“Ben was asking if we'd let John go out.”
“Oh, he's far too young.”
“Not to hunt. But I thought he might bring his pony to the meet and ride with them to the first covert. He'd love it so.”
“Is it quite safe?”
“Oh, yes, surely?”
“Bless his heart, I wish I could be here to see him.”
“Do change your mind.”
“Oh no, that's quite out of question. Don't make a thing about it, Tony.”
That was when she first arrived; later everything got better. Jock was there that week-end, also Allan and Marjorie and another married couple whom Tony had known all his life. Brenda had arranged the party for him and he enjoyed it. He and Allan went out with rook rifles and shot rabbits in the twilight; after dinner the four men played billiard fives while one wife watched. “The old boy's happy as a lark,” said Brenda to Marjorie. “He's settling down wonderfully to the new régime.”
They came in breathless and rather hurried for whisky and soda.
“Tony nearly had one through the window,” said Jock.
That night Tony slept in Guinevere.
“Everything is all right, isn't it,” he said once.
“Yes of course, darling.”
“I get depressed down here all alone and imagine things.”
“You aren't to brood, Tony. You know that's one of the things that aren't allowed.”