‘Did we know what Father did for us by his mere presence?’ said Luce. ‘We think of service as coming from definite action. This is a lesson.’
‘He will come back and find himself a god,’ said Daniel. ‘That will make a hard demand on him.’
‘I only want him as he is,’ said Eleanor, raising her eyes. ‘Miss Mitford, you must think this is a strange scene to arise out of nothing.’
‘I don’t know how it could do that.’
‘Well, to develop from a trifle, or to have the trifle made the reason of it. No doubt the emotions were there, and had to come out.’
‘I hope it has been a relief,’ said Miss Mitford.
‘Yes, I think it has. I believe I feel the better for it. Do you, my Isabel?’
‘No, I don’t think so. I had no emotions until the scene made them. I think I feel the worse.’
Regan gave a kind laugh.
‘I don’t expect you understand yourself,’ said Eleanor, gently. ‘Your father is the person who understands you. Poor child, you are one of the greatest sufferers from his absence.’
Isabel naturally began to cry. Venice glanced about in some discomfort at having no ground for tears. Miss Mitford rose from her seat.
‘Yes, run out into the air,’ said Eleanor, as if the movement suggested a solution of all questions. ‘Take your letter, Isabel dear. You will like to have it.’
Isabel looked at the note with an uncertain smile.
‘Yes, it is funny, isn’t it?’ said Eleanor. ‘Poor Father! He must have been very busy. Well, he meant to send you your own message. You know that.’
‘And Mother will know it in future,’ said Isabel, as she left the house. ‘I think she has had a lesson, and one she needed.’
‘I wish it were time for me to give your father an account of my stewardship,’ said Eleanor, to her elder children. ‘I dread the prospect of guiding you all for so many months. You do not respond to the single hand.’
‘A good deal is to your credit, Mother,’ said Luce.
‘You make an exception of this morning. But I only ask that there should be honesty between us.’
‘I would ask rarer and better things,’ said Graham.
‘People take perfection as a matter of course,’ said Daniel. ‘Anything else affronts and enrages them.’
‘I have learnt not to look for it,’ said Eleanor.
‘You make your own demand, Mother,’ said Luce.
‘Miss Mitford and the girls are coming back,’ said Eleanor. ‘Of course it has begun to rain. It is to be one of those days when every little thing goes wrong. Perhaps they would like to sit with us until their lessons.’
‘Is that a risk, if the day is of that nature?’ said Graham. ‘It has so far been true to itself.’
‘Come in, my dears, and take off your things,’ said Eleanor. ‘You can stay with us for a time. It will make a change for you. I expect Miss Mitford would like an hour to herself.’
‘Do I not also need the change?’ said Miss Mitford.
The laughter that greeted the words sowed that it did not even now occur to anyone, and Miss Mitford went to the door, striking everyone as a mildly ludicrous figure, with the exception of Graham, who saw her as a sad one. It would have been cheering to him to know her view of herself.
‘Well, what is a subject fraught with no danger?’ said Luce.
‘Hardly that one perhaps,’ said Daniel.
‘Let us talk in our own way,’ said Eleanor. ‘The subjects will arise of themselves. We are seldom at a loss for them.’
The minutes passed and this did not come about. Eleanor took up her needlework, as if it were a matter of indifference. When Venice giggled she looked at her with a smile.
‘The five of them ought to be photographed,’ said Regan, surveying her grandchildren.
‘We ought to have a group of them all, to send to their father,’ said Eleanor, ‘They have not been taken together since Nevill was born.’
‘How sincerely they speak, considering that they do not consider spending the money or the effort!’ said Daniel, to his brother.
‘We must be grateful for the thought,’ said Graham. ‘I see how real a thing it is.’
‘Father will no doubt appreciate it when it reaches him,’ said Isabel.
‘It is a photograph of Mother that Father would want,’ said Luce.
‘He took one of me with him,’ said Eleanor.
‘And one of Grandma too, I suppose.’
‘No, I did not load him up with one,’ said Regan.
‘He asked me for one of myself,’ said Eleanor. ‘Or rather he was packing a clumsy one, and I gave him another.’
‘He will not forget us,’ said Luce, in a peaceful tone.
‘No, dear, but that is not the point of a photograph,’ said Eleanor. ‘It gives a sort of companionship, an illusion of the presence of the person.’
‘The real presence must be a shadowy one in that case,’ said Regan.
‘Is it better to have a photograph of oneself packed or not?’ said Graham.
‘I see it as a tribute,’ said Daniel.
‘It is in a sense, of course,’ said Eleanor.
‘I expect there was one about the room,’ said Regan.
‘There were photographs of all of us,’ said Eleanor. ‘Of everyone in the house.’
‘Mother said a subject would arise, and it has arisen,’ said Graham.
Regan laughed and went to attend to her housekeeping.
‘It does not often occur to your grandmother that I may like to be left with my children,’ said Eleanor.
‘It strikes few of us that people want to be rid of us,’ said Daniel. ‘I do not remember having the feeling.’
‘I feel a temptation to mark time until Father returns,’ said Luce.
‘The house is even duller, the house seems duller than it was,’ said Isabel. ‘And that produces a sense of waiting for something.’
‘You cannot be dull when there are so many of you together,’ said Eleanor, with simple conviction. ‘You have your own rooms and your own interests. And Miss Mitford gives all her time to you, and you seem to find her amusing.’
‘Another subject has arisen,’ said Graham.
‘I am not going to have any more of them,’ said Eleanor, shaking her head. ‘We must not make Father’s absence an excuse for complaint and indolence. I see the rain has stopped, and there is time for a run before lessons. I wonder if Miss Mitford has noticed it.’
‘She does not notice anything when she is reading,’ said Venice.
‘Does she do nothing but read? I hope she will not teach you to be always poring over books. There are other things in life.’
‘Not in every life,’ said Graham.
‘That is what she does teach us in our lesson hours,’ said Isabel. ‘We thought she was supposed to, and so did she. At other times she does not interfere with us.’
‘I should think Isabel is the last girl to be dull in herself,’ said Eleanor, looking after her daughters. ‘She is always amusing and amused. And Venice is the easiest child. I should think no schoolroom could be happier. It is nice for James to come home to all of it.’
‘So it all works round to James’s advantage,’ said Graham.
‘You talk as if he were a pathetic character,’ said Eleanor. ‘He could not have more than he has.’
‘Graham dear,’ said Luce, in a low tone, ‘things can only be done by us according to our nature and our understanding. It is useless to expect more. We can none of us give it.’
‘That does not take from the pathos. Indeed it is the reason of it.’
‘It is partly the ordinary pathos of childhood, Graham.’