“That is what I should say,” said Walter, in a low tone to Simon, “if I dared to say it, if it would not mean too much from me. And it would mean it all.”
“My wife and I are glad for you, Hamish,” said Simon. “Marriage is for most of us the best thing.”
“Naomi, you are glad for me? Glad for yourself to have the help in banishing the past? For we have to forget it. This can be the last word.”
“Yes, I am glad,” said Naomi.
“I am not,” muttered Ralph. “I shall be a cynic for life. I suppose it had to be. There is the cynicism beginning. But it should not have been so soon. Cynicism cannot go too far. Hamish says it is his nature to be led. He need not say it again to me.”
“Naomi,” said Graham, “I wished the truth need not be told, that you and Hamish could marry. I feel I do not wish it now.”
“I saw the change. I saw and felt it from the first. Hamish thinks it will help me to forget. Of course it makes me remember. It is the change in him that will help me. And seeing it is not really a change.”
“I wish my father had lived to know,” said Hamish, looking round with the ease of confession past. “To know that his line would be continued, and to meet the woman who would do it. But I feel that perhaps he does know.”
“His very beliefs are different,” said Ralph. “He was a sceptic when he left us. The change goes right through him.”
“He is what he was,” said Naomi. “He is not a person to be always the same. He took his colour from us, and we could not know it was our own. It is we who have changed. We have come to a knowledge of him.”
“We can find no excuse for people who let us have that?” said Walter. “They would not deserve one.”
“If a thing needs excuse, it naturally cannot have it,” said Graham.
“Hamish wished your uncle had lived to know this, Simon,” said Fanny. “What do you feel yourself?”
“That I am glad he did not know.”
“I am worse than you. I am wishing he had known, and showed his feeling. And I was grateful to your mother for her speech.”
“I think you are to have further cause for gratitude.”
“We begin to follow it all, Hamish,” said Julia. “We see why you inclined to put the future above the past. It was so unlike you, that we were struck by it. I hope your wife will respect our old order. But I have no doubt she will.”
“We must not expect her to accept it, as if it were hers. She will put her own mark on things. It is what I want and ask of her.”
“And you wish your father had lived to know it?” said Julia, in a fainter tone.
“It is raining,” said Fanny, quickly. “And the children are in the garden. Miss Dolton went to the village, and left them to play outside.”
“They must come in,” said Hamish, going to the window and beckoning. “It is raining fast. Come up to the fire, both of you. I hope you are not wet?”
“Well, we are,” said Claud. “We have been out in the rain.”
“We stood by the wall,” said Emma. “It was the sensible thing to do.”
“Well, now you must get dry, and hear my news. You will not guess what it is.”
“I expect we shall,” said Claud. “We often guess. You are going to marry Naomi, after all.”
“No, but I am going to marry someone. Someone whom you will come to love. It is great news, isn’t it?”
“Well, we don’t mind about it. Why is it great? Why can you marry her, when you couldn’t marry Naomi?”
“Well, she and I are not cousins.”
“Why do you want so much to marry? You have two people to live with.”
“He only has one now,” said Emma.
“Well, it is a thing you will want yourself one day.”
“I want it now. I want to marry Emma. But I am too young by the law.”
“Well, Emma must refuse to marry anyone else.”
“I think a father can make a girl marry anyone he likes. I know he used to be able to. And it was — it was a father, who would not let you and Naomi marry, though of course there was a reason.”
“Well, history need not repeat itself,” said Simon, smiling or giving a smile. “I will not make Emma marry anyone.”
“Nor forbid her to marry me?” said Claud, on a faintly incredulous note.
“No, I will not do that either.”
“You are very fond of Emma,” said Julia. “That is a great thing for you both.”‘
“Yes, I am dependent on her. I find her a support.”
“Yes, he does,” said Emma. “He has to lean on someone.”
“Then he is like me,” said Hamish.
“No, I don’t think I am,” said Claud, at once. “When I depend on a person, I couldn’t ever have anyone instead.”
“No, he couldn’t,” said Emma. “He has a faithful heart. It is the only thing worth having.”
“It has stopped raining,” said Fanny, as if she felt this to be fortunate. “You may run out again.”
“We don’t need to run,” said Claud, as he walked to the door. “We shall get out soon enough. We will go on with our game.”
“What are you playing at?” said Julia.
“We are Father and Uncle Walter in their old haunts. This used to be their garden. I am Uncle, and Emma is Father.”
“Why, it should be the other way round. You are the elder.”
“Yes, but only a year. And Emma takes the lead.”
“Yes, I do,” said his sister. “But I don’t try to be what Father was. It must seem to us that he has never been a child.”
“So it would be no good to copy him,” said Claud.
“And we don’t copy people,” said Emma. “We know where that would lead.”
“Shut the door,” called Simon after them. “No, do not shut it for them, Fanny. Let Claud do it himself.”
“I am glad to have it between them and us,” said his wife, as she achieved this.
“Tell us all you have to tell, Hamish,” said Graham. “We have hardly learned much yet.”
“You shall know it all. I hope you will soon know her. It is to be such a good friendship. I have thought of it all the time. I met her by chance. She is older than I am, but not enough to matter, if such a thing could count to me, as it could not. She is gifted and widely read, my superior in every sense. She has no parents, and is independent in means, and very independent in herself. I need not describe her. You will soon do so yourselves. I long to see her and Naomi together. It should be something that will last their lives.”
“So Hamish is providing compensation for Naomi,” said Ralph. “And in a form he might not have thought of.”
“Claud said it was not great news,” said Rhoda, in a quiet tone. “But to me it was.”
“Mother, it was the most to you. It is a thing that goes without saying.”
“The news itself did not do so.”
“We will leave you to discuss it, Rhoda,” said Simon. “It was your right to know before anyone. Hamish must render his account.”
“It seemed best to tell you all at once, Cousin Simon. And you made it easy for me. I shall not forget it.”
“There was no reason to make it hard for you,” said Simon, as they left the house.
“There was,” said Walter. “But we could not act upon it. Why is it compulsory to be so virtuous?”
“I ought not to say it,” said Julia. “But shall we think the same of Hamish? After all he said, when he knew his first wish must be denied him?”
“Well, it was his first,” said Graham. “We can remember that.”
“I suppose he could not be expected never to marry.”
“He could for the time,” said Ralph. “It was what we did expect.”
“Never is a long word,” said Walter. “And the time since the truth was known, is short.”