“Well, we are not to be alone on this first night of our new life,” said Godfrey, as they gathered in the drawing-room. “We are to have some compensation.”
“I am sure, Sir Godfrey,” said Dominic, “that neither Lady Hardisty nor I would see ourselves in that light.”
“I have come on purpose to be seen in it,” said Rachel. “You are fortunate to be a chance guest, Mr. Spong. It does seem more sensitive.”
“Lady Hardisty, I was far from making that comparison. Now if Miss Griselda can bring herself to tolerate an escort so many years her senior, I shall be happy to do my best to bridge the gulf between us.”
In the dining-room there occurred some hesitation over Harriet’s seat, which Buttermere, in the failure of definite directions, had deliberately placed.
“Sir Godfrey,” said Dominic, standing to elucidate the position, “I think we are all agreed that that is a place we should prefer to see unoccupied.”
“It is my duty to prevent that,” said Rachel, taking the seat, and putting her fan on the table.
“Lady Hardisty, I appreciate your attitude. You are doing more,” said Dominic, turning on her a gaze that seemed to swell for different reasons.
“I am doing nothing, but it is better for them all not to see the place empty.”
“Lady Hardisty, mine was the simpler masculine view. I bow to a woman’s deeper insight in these matters.”
“Ah, you set us an example, Spong,” said Godfrey, as his guest gave a sudden rapid murmur, checked his haste and openly rounded his utterance, and looked towards the window.
“That was far from my thoughts, Sir Godfrey.”
“True. It was not the view he thought we should take of it,” said Matthew.
“He showed true courage,” said Jermyn.
“But he showed it so plainly,” said Griselda. “That is hard on others.”
“It had always been the custom of my wife and myself,” Dominic was saying, “to begin and end a meal with blessing and thanksgiving. I admit it would materially lessen my enjoyment of a repast to feel that either was omitted.”
“’Materially’ is an excellent word,” said Gregory. “Of course it is wise not to omit them.”
“I confess,” said Dominic with a touch of asperity and suspicion, “that I never do omit them, whatever difficulties may be placed in my way.”
“No difficulties are in your way here, Spong,” said Godfrey. “And I think it is a very good plan to express our gratitude for what is given us, as though we were not ashamed of it. We have grace on formal occasions; I don’t know why we gave it up amongst ourselves.”
“Not because you were ashamed, if you have it before guests,” said Rachel; “though they say that showing in true colours is especially hard in family life.”
“It was nothing more than the change of fashion, I think,” said Godfrey.
“It is hardly the sphere, Sir Godfrey, in which the dictates of Dame Fashion need be meticulously adhered to,” said Dominic, as if his host’s position were sufficiently established to allow of entertaining lightness.
“I don’t see any sense in fashion if it is not adhered to,” said Griselda.
“No, Miss Griselda, that is the view you would very naturally take.”
“I wish I could use a word like ‘meticulously’ as a matter of course,” said Gregory.
“Gregory,” said Dominic, “may I ask why?”
“Because of the effect of modern reading,” said Gregory.
“I felt that for a moment,” said Rachel. “But that effect would not fit the atmosphere I try to create.”
“I entirely concur, Lady Hardisty,” said Dominic, “that that is not a department in which you need take any steps to emulate me.”
Gregory and Griselda laughed.
“It appears, Sir Godfrey,” said Dominic with a good-natured chuckle, “that these young people are engaged in holding up to ridicule such old fogeys as you and me. We must not include Lady Hardisty in that category.”
“The young monkeys! I daresay they are,” said Godfrey.
“We do not grudge them, Sir Godfrey, the relaxation proper to their years, even though it be at our expense. We know they do not forget the occasion which has given rise to the presence of Lady Hardisty and myself.”
“I had hoped they had forgotten it for the moment,” said Rachel. “They did their best to avoid it, poor children.”
“I doubt if they would thank you for that appellation,” said Dominic with a rather difficult smile. “We may be safe in gathering from experience of young people that it would not appeal to them.”
“Don’t take any notice of me,” said Rachel. “I can’t forget the occasion, and remembering occasions does not improve anyone. It is so considerate of people to forget them, and give up their credit for depth of nature for the sake of others.”
“Whatever you do, Rachel, we are thankful to have you here to-night,” said Godfrey. “We are so grateful for your presence that everything else is swallowed up in our gratitude.”
Dominic looked as if he somehow suffered in comparison with Rachel, and was at a loss to explain it.
“Don’t let my taking the working party be swallowed up,” said Rachel. “It is really important to deprive the workers of the pleasure of Gregory’s taking it alone. Why should they have pleasure when Harriet can’t? They might even forget the occasion. Mr. Spong has put that into my head, and I could not bear it.”
“I shouldn’t be there, anyhow,” said Gregory, in a quiet, open manner. “I shan’t be seeing so much of Mrs. Calkin and her sisters now that Mother is ill. She was anxious for me to make friends of my own age, and I hope to get on to the lines she wanted, before she comes back.”
“Yes, that is the lie of the land, Rachel!” said Godfrey, after a prolonged look, with eyebrows raised, at his youngest son. “Harriet’s children can think of nothing but how they can serve her, and meet her when she returns, with their whole lives adapted to her desires. That is their aim and object. Here is Griselda scuttling away from the rector, scurrying like a hare at the word of approach, because he wasn’t her mother’s fancy for her! And Matthew is giving up his research, simply and finally giving it up without a look behind, because she believed that humdrum work, useful work in the world should be put before personal ambitions. His personal ambitions, poor, dear lad! And now here is Gregory, the last and the least, I mean our dear youngest boy, snapping his thumb at his old ladies, resolving to see no more of them, because it was a whim of his mother’s, his mother knew in her wisdom that his contemporaries were better for him! If these are not children to be proud of, I don’t know whose are. Would you not be proud of children of that stamp, Rachel?”
“Children of that stamp couldn’t be mine, Godfrey. There is nothing of anything you mention in me to be inherited. For example I couldn’t make friends of my contemporaries. They are failing too rapidly. I hate people whose golden bowls are broken.”
“I think we need hardly suggest, Lady Hardisty, that Lady Haslam’s case is of that nature,” said Dominic looking bewildered.
“Well, Spong, and what do you think of these children of mine, now that I have told you what I have of them?”
“Sir Godfrey,” said Dominic, “I honour them. I honour the young men for the sacrifice that seems to me a tribute to their essential manliness, though many people might take the opposite view; and I am sure Miss Griselda is not behind them in the feminine sphere, which involves no less than their more conspicuous masculine one. Sir Godfrey, I honour your sons and your daughter.”