‘No, Gavin has had a dream and wants to tell you.’
‘I don’t,’ said Gavin, turning away his head.
‘What is it?’ said his sister, in a rough tone that cleared his face.
‘It was a sort of a dream.’
‘Were you afraid?’
‘No.’
‘Will you tell me after dinner?’
‘Yes.’
‘It was kind of Honor to wake,’ said Eleanor.
Gavin did not reply.
‘Don’t you think it was?’
‘She thought it was burglars,’ said Gavin, and turned on his side.
‘What is wrong with them, Hatton?’ said Eleanor.
‘Only the journey, madam. They will be themselves tomorrow.’
‘I wonder the human race has been so fond of migrations, when the young take so hardly to travelling,’ said Eleanor, with her occasional dryness.
Mullet fell into laughter and hastily left the room, as though feeling it familiar to meet an employer’s jest with the equal response of mirth. Honor looked at her mother and laughed in her turn, and Gavin surveyed them with a frown.
Chapter 3
Eleanor went downstairs to the dining-room, where her husband, his parents and his three eldest children were assembled for luncheon.
‘Hatton continues to manage the little ones in her own way. I suppose it would do no good to interfere.’
‘What is wrong with the method?’ said Fulbert, seeming to gather himself together for judgement.
‘A good many things that only a mother would see.’
‘Then we cannot expect Hatton to be aware of them.’
‘Nor the rest of us, Mother dear,’ said Luce. ‘You must not look for sympathy. I am always thankful that I had the same nurse when I was young. It takes any anxiety for the children simply off me.’
‘Hatton will rule the house in the end,’ said Eleanor.
‘A good many of you seem to be doing that,’ said Sir Jesse. ‘But if too many cooks spoil the broth, the right number make it very good.’
‘It is a real achievement, the way you all work together,’ said Fulbert. ‘I mean to pay you a serious compliment.’
‘You talk as if you were a creature apart,’ said Eleanor.
‘Yes, you do, Father,’ said Luce.
‘Have you two lads forgotten your tongues?’ said Fulbert.
‘I had a hope of it,’ said Sir Jesse.
‘I don’t think I forbade you to speak, Graham,’ said Daniel.
‘Did you change your room, Luce, my dear?’ said Regan.
‘Yes, I am having Graham’s, Grandma.’
‘What is this about changing rooms?’ said Eleanor. ‘It is the first I have heard of it.’
‘Luce wants more light,’ said Daniel. ‘So we are arranging for Graham to do without it.’
‘Well, what use is it to him?’ said Sir Jesse, who resented any aspersion on his house. ‘To look at himself in the glass? He can give way to his sister there.’
‘I was the natural person to consult,’ said Eleanor.
‘Well, Mother dear, Grandma seemed just as much so,’ said Luce. ‘Perhaps more, as the house is hers.’
Eleanor was silent, submitting to the place she had accepted, and Regan gave her an almost sympathetic glance.
‘The children are on the stairs,’ said Daniel. ‘They will have their dessert at an odd time today.’
‘They had better dispense with it,’ said Eleanor.
‘That is seldom a happy solution,’ said Fulbert. ‘Things in the wrong order won’t hurt them for once.’
Nevill ran into the room in the manner of a horse, lifting his feet and head in recognizable imitation.
‘So you are a horse today,’ said his mother.
‘A charger, a little charger.’
‘Chargers are big,’ said Gavin.
‘No,’ said Nevill, shaking his head in a manner at once equine and negative; ‘a little charger.’
‘A pony,’ suggested Daniel.
‘A pony,’ agreed Nevill.
‘Ponies are always small,’ said Regan.
‘Always small,’ said Nevill, on a contented note.
‘Do you want me to go on with the tale?’ said Luce.
Nevill trotted to her side and stood with his hand on her knee, and his eyes on her face.
‘I don’t remember if I like it,’ said Gavin.
‘It is Nevill’s tale,’ said Honor.
‘But you can all listen,’ said Eleanor.
‘His tale,’ said Nevill, throwing them a look.
‘Can you tell me where we left off?’ said Luce.
‘No,’ said Nevill, rapidly moving his feet. ‘Don’t let Gavin tell you. Luce tell Nevill.’
‘Don’t you remember yourself?’
‘No.’
‘And it is your tale,’ said Eleanor.
‘He doesn’t remember,’ said Nevill, striking Luce’s knee.
‘Read us a piece out of the book,’ said Gavin.
‘Well, get it and find the place,’ said Luce. ‘We have only a few minutes.’
Honor obeyed with speed and success, and Gavin waited while she did so, and joined her to listen.
‘Why do you leave it all to Honor?’ said Eleanor, who was not happy in the child whom she singled out for achievement.
Gavin kept his eyes on his sister’s face. Nevill turned away and resumed his imitation of a pony, trying to distinguish the movements from those of a horse.
‘Well, is no one coming to talk to me?’ said Eleanor. ‘Why did you all come down?’
Gavin did not allow his attention to be diverted, and Luce read on, as if she would not undertake a thing and not accomplish it.
‘I must ring for Hatton to fetch you, if you haven’t any reason for being here. Luce can read to you upstairs.’
‘She never does,’ said Gavin, in a parenthetic tone.
‘We can’t have your mother left out in the cold.’
Nevill paused in his prancing and glanced at Eleanor; Sir Jesse and Regan remained aloof, claiming no part in the separate family life; Fulbert beckoned to Honor and lifted her to his knee; Gavin did not move his eyes and frowned at the interruptions.
‘Now we don’t want any fallen faces,’ said Eleanor, putting her arm round Nevill, and looking for the change which she described, or rather suggested. ‘You will know how to stay another time.’
‘Go with Hatton,’ said Nevill, in an acquiescent tone.
‘We should have had to go soon because of our dinner,’ said Honor, in a confident manner from Fulbert’s knee.
‘Don’t you want to go, my boy?’ said Eleanor to Gavin.
‘I don’t mind.’
‘Well, run away then.’
Gavin looked at her and sank into tears.
‘Honor, is Gavin quite well?’
‘Yes, I think so, Mother.’
‘Then what is the matter with him?’
Honor met her mother’s eyes.
Daniel and Graham picked up Honor and carried her round the room. She put her arms round their necks and laughed and shouted in reaction. Eleanor looked on with an indulgent smile, and Gavin with an expectant one. Nevill beat his hands on his sides and moved from foot to foot; and when his brothers took Gavin in Honor’s stead, broke into wails and maintained them until they came to himself, when he repulsed them and stood abandoned to his sense that nothing could wipe out what had taken place. When Eleanor and Luce had expostulated in vain, and Regan explained with some success, he raised his arms and allowed himself to be lifted, leaning back in his brother’s arms with an air of convalescence. They tightened their hold and quickened their pace, and he held to their shoulders and accepted this compensation for what he had borne, while Honor watched with bright eyes, and Gavin with a smile of gentle interest.
‘Give Gavin one little turn, and then that is enough,’ said Eleanor.
Nevill stood with his arm on Regan’s knee, and his eyes on his brothers with a watchful expression. Hatton arrived in response to the sounds that had reached her ears.