“No, it would lack a cat’s aloofness and distance.”
“Plautus, did you ask me a question?” said Hester.
“Perhaps silence is consent,” said Miss Burke.
“Tell me what you said, Plautus.”
Silence did not serve this time, and Hester turned to Emma.
“I must write to Mrs. Hume. I shall not say I have heard about her. I shall simply answer her advertisement. I decided how to describe myself.”
“You should ask for an interview. Then she will think you are a woman of the world. You can judge of each other when you meet. That is, you can judge as well as she.”
“So I proved I was not one,” said Miss Burke. “I let her suggest the interview. That was my first mistake.”
“You should not behave like a companion, when you are going to be one. You should assume they could not think of you in that way. If there is any hint of that, Hester, come straight home, and Miss Burke will comfort you, as only she can know how.”
“What sort of a family is it?” said Hester.
“Five people beside Mrs. Hume,” said Miss Burke. “A husband, a son, and three tall children.”
“Do the interviews take place in public?”
“They take place where Mrs. Hume happens to be.”
“And she wants a companion!” said Emma. “She must have a passion for companionship. And I think you said she has a cat as well. She must have an over-social nature.”
“Yes, Plautus, it is a privilege to put a cushion for you, is it?” said Hester. “And to see you settle on it, as if no thanks were needed?”
“A cat is at once more and less than a human being,” said Emma.
“Now why did he ask for a cushion, if he did not want it? What was in his mind?”
“We shall never know. To think we shall never know! You will not tread on him, dear, will you?”
“No, I will not indeed.”
“She does not love you enough even to tread on you Plautus,” said Hester. “Now I am not going to read my letter aloud. No one can apply for a situation and be at her best, and Plautus likes me to be that. I said I had to earn my living, which was anyhow dignified and honest.”
“And still was not your best?” said Emma. “Ought not Mrs. Hume to know that? Though it is never dignified for a woman to say such things. And it is not really honest, when everything I have is yours.”
Plautus signified a wish to leave the room, but met with no response.
“If he came in by that crack, he can go out by it,” said Miss Burke.
Hester rose in silence and opened the door, and Plautus hastened forward and paused in the doorway.
“There is such a draught,” said Emma. “Does he want to go in or out?”
Plautus wished to do neither.
“How he knows his own mind!” said Hester.
“We might take the other view,” said Miss Burke.
“You are almost too far above us, dear,” said Emma.
“Not above Plautus,” said Hester. “He lives in a world apart. He knows things that we do not, all manner of things of his own. I expect he knows the way the stars go round.”
“Then he has not paid much attention to the earth,” said Miss Burke. “Now, Plautus, this way or that!” She made a sound with her hands and feet, and Plautus gave a start and a glance and fled.
“How resolute of you, dear!” said Emma. “To do a thing that threw light on you. I should not have had the courage. There will never be any light on me.”
“Well, not that sort of courage,” said Hester. “Poor Plautus, has he gone away to cry by himself? I must go and comfort him.”
She went out with this purpose, but found it was not Plautus who needed comfort. He was sitting on the grass behind the house, with an air of doing something deeply congenial, his eyes on some birds, who were fluttering and crying under his openly sinister scrutiny. It was true that he knew things that they did not, and he was engaged with them at the moment.
Miss Burke turned to Emma.
“Do you think I shall suit you, Miss Greatheart? I have not pretended to be anything but what I am.”
“I am sure you have not, dear. And what a question, when you are a family friend! And when you persecute Plautus, as if it were your established privilege, which of course it is. You cannot expect an answer.”
“I shall be glad to settle down. I have never felt so much at home on my first day.”
“No, I thought perhaps you had not. And we are quite dependent on you. There is no such thing as time. I have not asked you if you can be happy with us. When what we give is food and shelter and a salary, and happiness does not depend on material things, it seems a foolish question.”
“You don’t know how much worse — how different it is in most places.”
“Yes, I do. I think it is more different than it is. We are never as different from other people as we think, or as we ought to be. But I hope Hester will not be able to bear it. I am sure Mrs. Hume is the very person for her. Wanting companions when she has so many! Of course the companion will be put to other purposes.”
“Am I to direct the maid? Or do we both take our orders from you?”
“You could both take them from Hester, if she were to be here. But now you will give them all to the maid. You will treat her as you do Plautus, and she will look up to you and be content.”
“I shall remember she is a human being. That will be enough.”
“Well, dear, if you think it best. You will have to remind yourself of it, if she does not.”
Plautus edged round the door, came across the room, and laid a dead bird at Emma’s feet.
“Oh, it is too much. Everything he has is mine. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friend. And he knew we could not spare his life; so he found another and laid it down. And perhaps he could not spare it himself. What an element of pathos there is in it!”
“And elements of other things,” said Miss Burke. “He is simply a jungle beast.”
“Yes, we all prey on each other. The jungle is never dead. It is a strange thought.”
“Oh, cruel Plautus!” said Hester, entering. “I did my best to prevent it. But I was a mere human being and could do nothing.”
“And Plautus is a thing apart. His heart beats in tune with the great heart of Nature. And Nature has no pity.”
“You are all in the jungle,” said Miss Burke.
“No, did you not see Plautus come out of it? He came and laid his all at my feet. What there is in a simple action!”
“Oh, he tried to give it to me at first,” said Hester. “But I would not accept it. I cannot countenance everything.”
“He gave me no choice. He simply came and told me it was mine.”
“He had already told me that.”
“He put all his heart into the giving,” said Emma, in her dreamy tone. “I could see it in his eye, the complete renunciation.”
“Oh, naughty Plautus.” said Hester, shaking her finger. “To catch the bird for me, and think it was a welcome attention.”
“You had better share the bird,” said Miss Burke. “Plautus will not mind.”
“Yes, make us see ourselves through your eyes, dear,” said Emma. “You see us through them. We have noticed it.”
Plautus carried the bird from the room.
“How clever to solve the problem!” said Hester.
“Poor Plautus, how he wanted it!” said Emma. “Wasn’t it pretty to see his lower nature triumphing? So much better than seeing ours doing it. Miss Burke was quite shocked by that.”
“He cannot want to eat the bird,” said the latter. “He is overfed.”
“No, it is sport for its own sake. When we hunt a fox, we do not want to eat it. Perhaps it seems to make it worse. But I believe Plautus did want to eat the bird. He has taken it away to try to do it.”
“Have you ever kept a dog?” said Miss Burke, speculating on the result of this.