“What do they think of your lack of them?”
“Did they say that I lacked them? Then I despise them also for carping criticism and speaking against people behind their backs. I thought they would know that I breathed a rarer air than they did.”
“But you did not feel grateful to them?”
“It is foolish to talk about feeling gratitude to such people.”
“I don’t want to interrupt the catechism, Father,” said Anna, “but have you not got off the point?”
“I have said all the same things,” said Thomas.
“It is true,” said Terence, looking round and nodding. “And they are only brothers by marriage.”
“What do you think of the adjustment of relationships?” said Bernard to Tullia.
“Well, I don’t know why they require so much attention. They seemed to be enough in themselves. I should not have thought of tampering with them, though people do say that Father and I might be husband and wife.”
“But the marriage of cousins is lawful,” said Reuben. “A man can’t put away his wife, because she is his cousin.”
“No, the marriage is for better, for worse, like any other,” said his sister.
“And yet it seems to be so different,” said Tullia.
“Yes, I feel we are being cheated,” said Claribel. “A marriage in both our families, and no fresh member for either!”
“When did you have the news broken to you, Tullia?” said Anna.
“Well, I suppose Terence must have said things about it. But I don’t think I took it in until to-day. Not to be clear about it anyhow.”
“No one knew about it until to-day.”
“Oh, well, then I did not fall short in any way.”
“It is good of you to yield him up without a protest.”
“You are not going to leave the place, are you?” said Tullia, with a note of surprise.
“No, but Terence will be in a home of his own.”
“Well, so shall I. Father’s house must be that for me indeed. So I have no reason to find fault with him.”
“And it will not put land and water between you,” said Benjamin.
“No, but it must put other things,” said Anna.
“What things?” said Tullia, in light wonder.
“Oh, all the intangible things that rise up between a married man and his superseded relations,” said Anna, in a tone of being driven further than she had meant to go.
“Well, it would be sad to belong to those,” said Tullia, with a little laugh.
“If it is a laughing matter, it is all right.”
“Well, you make it seem one,” said Tullia, laughing again.
“We shall have to set about looking for a house,” said Anna, putting the final seal upon the coming change.
“Well, what is there wrong in that? You talk as if all your intentions were in some way unjustifiable. And they sound innocent enough.”
“I am glad there is to be none of the disapproval, that I somehow feared was in store.”
“But I have been thinking, Terence,” said Tullia, in a tone of turning to the serious aspect of the matter, “that I really must leave you to manage your house-hunting for yourself. I have not time to put my heart into it, and it is useless to do it in any other spirit. Father must have the lion’s share of me just now. Of course, if I can be of any help at the final stage, it is another thing.”
“We don’t want any help,” said Anna, with a look of surprise. “Choosing a home is a personal thing, and I am not quite without experience. I chose this house, and it has done for us very well. I have no qualms’ about leaving my men behind in it.”
“I wish I could say that sort of thing. But I can hardly leave my father for an hour, and must just submit to fate. Terence must understand or not, according as it is in him. But he has always been a good and comprehending person.”
Anna looked at her cousin with a grim half-smile.
“I don’t know why I should be talked to, as if I were not capable of taking my own place. I can get some kind of a home for Terence. You need not be afraid.”
“That is rather what I meant, Anna,” said Tullia, with open gravity. “A house has to have a soul that suits its owner, and if it isn’t easy for you to judge of it, I am at your service. That is all I meant.”
“I believe you meant a good deal more, but we will leave it like that at the moment. I am to seek your advice, if I am perplexed about the soul of our house. But it is not likely that I shall troubje you. I don’t much care for ready-made souls, and Terence and I will soon put our own life into it.”
Tullia glanced about the room, as if it threw some light for her on Anna’s words, and turned to talk to her father in a manner that implied that little was of moment to them outside themselves.
Thomas put his arm about her, and drew Anna to his other side.
“So I am to have two daughters instead of one, and at a time in my life when I am doubly grateful for what comes to me.”
“Are we supposed to comport ourselves as if people were seeing us for the first time?” said Tullia, putting her face on a line with her cousin’s.
“I wish we were doing that,” said Terence to Bernard. “We should get such a bad impression of them. And I only like people for their faults. That is why women are superior to men, that they are so full of petty failings. And I don’t think it is always fair to call them petty. It really places them above the beasts.”
“Oh, I can do my duty as a foil in a moment,” said Anna, throwing herself into place by Tullia.
“We ought to be alike, now that we are to be so much related,” said the latter. “Are you my cousin or my sister-in-law?”
“The first at the moment. Presently I shall be both.”
“No, it is too difficult,” said Tullia, shaking her head.
“Concentrate on the second relationship. The greater supersedes the less.”
“No, no, I don’t want to get as far as concentration. That is quite an uphill path.”
“Well, leave it to the future. That takes care of itself.”
“No, I will have you for a cousin, as I always have,” said Tullia, with an air of emerging from a dilemma. “I shall just refuse to admit any change.”
“How I do admire them!” said Terence.
“Show the whole of yourself, Tulliola,” said Thomas.
“Poor dear, was he jealous then?” said Tullia, putting her hand on his shoulder. “Was I thinking of cousins and sisters and not of him? But it really was a good deal to grasp, and my mind hadn’t room for any more.”
“I can see a look of Tullia in Anna, though you would not expect it,” said Terence. “It is not enough to be called a likeness.”
“I have seen two people more unlike,” said Bernard.
“I have not,” said Esmond.
“No, I don’t think I discern this new-found resemblance,” said Claribel.
“Your brothers are behaving with exemplary self-suppression,” said Tullia to Anna. “If Terence had been required to make this sacrifice, there would have been — well, lamentation and great weeping.”
“But you are not indulging in such an outbreak at the prospect of losing him,” said Bernard.
“Oh, you do not lose a brother,” said Tullia, as if in surprise at the misapprehension. “It is the woman who is submerged, never to rise again. It is rather a relief to cast off the problem of dividing myself between father and son. If I made a scene about losing Terence, well, there would be another one.”
“She is making the scene in her own way,” said Anna, in a low tone.
“You are being forbearing over it,” said Terence. “It is something that it is veiled.”
“I think I prefer the open method. It may be because I am not versed in any other. I have not a chance in these subtle contests, that are conducted under a disguise. My obvious shafts would not find a point open enough for them,”