‘It is too necessary for us to like it,’ said Regan.
‘It is very brave,’ said Graham. ‘But people think so, and that is something.’
‘I think we ought to go, Mother,’ said Faith.
‘You mean we are constraining their last hours?’
‘I have not seen any sign of constraint.’
‘We are happy to be helped over them,’ said Sir Jesse. ‘It is hard to talk to my son, with this in front. And most of what I have to say can wait for his return. He must have heard it many times.’
‘He will not be in the same position, Sir Jesse,’ said Ridley, speaking with easy confidence in the future. ‘He will have much to relate, that is entirely unfamiliar.’
‘We know he will come back, if he is alive,’ said Regan. ‘It will be a good thing when he is gone now.’
‘What are you children doing, listening to grown-up talk?’ said Eleanor.
‘You have stated our occupation,’ said Isabel. ‘And it is hard to see our alternative.’
‘You can all run away to the schoolroom.’
‘You do mix the sexes,’ said Hope. ‘I was wondering if I had been wrong in keeping Ridley and Faith together.’
‘Brothers and sisters are separated soon enough.’
‘Ridley and Faith were not. We only found it out when they were.’
‘Ridley was always a very masculine type,’ said Faith. ‘And he was some years older than I was, and I think more developed for his age.’
‘You must remember you are speaking of your brother, dear,’ said Hope.
‘I said nothing against him, Mother.’
‘You were damning him with faint praise; I think with almost no praise at all. I believe you were just damning him.’
‘I am not always thinking of praising people or not praising them.’
‘It would be nice to think of the first, dear.’
‘You don’t often do it yourself, Mother.’
‘Well, I so seldom see any cause for praise. And when I do, I am so often upset about it. So it is not very easy for me.’
‘I shall be quite an important person for the next months,’ said Fulbert. ‘I daresay you all think it will be a change.’
‘It had not crossed my mind, Father,’ said Luce, with a smile.
‘Other things will be that, my boy,’ said Sir Jesse. ‘My advice is to make the most of them.’
‘Away, away, you children,’ said Luce, gently clapping her hands.
‘Yes, Miss Mitford will be expecting them,’ said Eleanor.
‘Miss Mitford’s heart must grow sick with hope deferred,’ said Graham.
‘You have taken a weight off my mind, Ridley,’ said Fulbert.
‘There is happily no need to regard it as transferred to mine.’
‘I wish I could sometimes meet a mark of confidence,’ said Hope.
‘Different people are suited to different things,’ said Faith.
‘I don’t think that is a better way of putting it, dear, or anyhow not nicer. I ought to go away like Fulbert, and let absence make the heart grow fond.’
‘Such a step would be fraught with danger for many of us,’ said Ridley, shaking his head.
‘I don’t mean I should dare to go.’
‘Ridley does not mean in Mr Sullivan’s case,’ said Faith. ‘He was thinking of ordinary people like ourselves.’
‘Being coupled with you, dear, makes up for everything,’ said Hope.
‘I think the gap must tend to get a little narrower,’ said Fulbert, in an unflinching tone.
‘It is a good thing if it does,’ said Regan; ‘I am sure I hope it will.’
‘What should we talk about, if it disappeared?’ said Graham.
‘Do you think you will miss your father less, as time goes on, Graham?’ said Eleanor.
‘I hope my elders are right. I want to be saved all I can.’
‘Do you, Daniel?’
‘I will take Grandma’s word for it.’
Eleanor looked round in an instinct to pass on to James, but realized that he was gone.
‘You ought to bear your own testimony, my dear,’ said Fulbert, ‘if you require it of other people.’
‘I think you ought, Mother,’ said Luce.
‘I shall miss your father more with every day.’
‘I am sure that is the truth, Mother. And very few people could say it unflinchingly like that.’
‘I am glad Grandma set the fashion, and not Mother,’ said Graham.
‘This is excellent for the gap,’ said Daniel. ‘Father may have been getting anxious about it.’
‘How wonderful heroism is!’ said Hope.
‘I think we ought to leave them, Mother,’ said Faith.
‘To wallow in our family miseries,’ said Regan, in a tone of contempt for the prospect.
‘I have never seen the courage of despair before,’ said Hope.
‘I can quite understand it,’ said Faith. It does not show any lack of feeling.’
‘We shall be outstaying our welcome,’ said Paul.
‘And doing other things to it,’ said his wife. ‘Good-bye, Fulbert; we shall meet you again before you go, and again when you come back; it will be nothing but meeting. I am hiding everything under a cheerful exterior, as that seems to be the kind that is always used.’
‘You put rather a strain on our patience, Mrs Cranmer,’ said Ridley, as they left the house.
‘But not too much for it, dear. You mean that too.’
‘You can talk with more sense, Ridley,’ said Paul.
‘I do see what Ridley means, Father,’ said Faith, in a tone so quiet as to be almost an undertone. ‘I cannot say I do not.’
‘Then we won’t expect it, dear,’ said Hope. ‘I wonder if I shall be the means of binding you and Ridley together.’
‘Do you ever show your true self, Mrs Cranmer?’ said Ridley, who was proceeding in a state of exaltation produced by the trust reposed in him.
‘I hope not often. I do my best to conceal it.’
‘Our true selves should not be anything to be ashamed of,’ said Faith.
‘I don’t think it would be nice not to be ashamed of them,’ said Hope. ‘I am ashamed and terrified of mine, and even more of other people’s.’
‘Other people’s are the thing,’ said Paul.
‘There are people in whom I would place an absolute trust,’ said Faith.
‘We won’t ask you to mention them, for fear they are not us,’ said Hope.
‘I think one of them is Mrs Sullivan.’
‘Oh, so they are not us,’ said Paul.
‘I confess that the inner truth of people tends to elude me,’ said Ridley. ‘Penetration may not be one of my qualities.’
‘Well, that was not mentioned,’ said Hope. ‘But I daresay it does not matter. You are able to think the best of everyone; and as people live up to our conception of them, that would improve them.’
‘Here we are at home,’ said Faith, in a bright tone, as if welcoming an end to a conversation she regretted. ‘It is nearly time for tea.’
‘I am glad to hear it,’ said Paul. ‘A woman’s life is giving me a woman’s ways.’
‘That may not be the explanation, Father. I also feel ready for it,’ said Ridley.
‘And your life is a man’s, a hero’s really,’ said Hope.
‘That is perhaps an exaggeration, Mrs Cranmer.’
‘Talking to the old man is a tax,’ said Paul. ‘He is like a volcano that is quiet at the top.’
‘Then he is like a real one,’ said Hope, ‘and that must be alarming. I sympathize with him, if he has to pretend to be better than he is. I know what a strain it can be.’
‘Did you adopt the course today?’ said Paul, laughing.
‘No, I was dreadful, wasn’t I? Absolutely myself. To think that Fulbert will have to remember me like that!’
‘It is better to be oneself, whatever impression one gives,’ said Faith.