‘Is it a nice luncheon?’ she said.
‘It is the same as usual,’ said Gavin.
‘Well, that is nice, isn’t it?’
‘He likes it,’ said Nevill.
‘Well, what do you think we have come to tell you?’
‘Don’t let Honor guess,’ said Gavin, rubbing his feet quickly together.
‘I have some news for you about myself. You don’t often hear me talk about myself, do you?’
‘You have done it since Father died,’ said Gavin.
‘Well, I have had myself in my mind. There has been no one else to think much about me. Have you ever thought about my being alone?’
‘You are not,’ said Honor. ‘Not any more than we are. We have other people and not Father, and so have you.’
‘Well, now I am going to have someone who will think of me as Father did, and will not feel I must only have the same as other people. Can you guess who it is?’
‘It is Mr Ridley,’ said Honor, at once. ‘But you have him now.’
‘Well, I am going to have him in a different way. We are going to belong to each other.’
‘Are you going to marry him?’
‘Yes, I am, my little girl.’
‘It is not allowed by the law,’ said Gavin.
‘I think, young man, that I may be the judge of that,’ said Ridley. ‘The law happens to be my profession.’
‘But you can’t be Mother’s real husband.’
‘That is what I am going to be.’
‘But a woman can’t have more than one husband in a civilized land. It is only in savage countries that they do that. And then it is usually more than one wife.’
‘In some countries polyandry is practised,’ said Honor, in an easy tone.
‘And you feel we are starting the custom in this country?’ said Ridley, smiling.
‘Say to Mother that you hope she will be very happy,’ whispered Mullet.
‘Why will you be happier, married to Mr Ridley, than just always being with him?’ said Honor.
‘An observant pair of eyes, Nurse,’ said Ridley.
‘We don’t call her Nurse,’ said Gavin.
‘He calls her Mullet,’ said Nevill. ‘And sometimes he says, dear Mullet.’
‘Here is a successful household character,’ said Ridley, indicating Mullet to Eleanor.
‘You shouldn’t say things about her when she can hear,’ said Gavin.
‘I think I have upset him,’ said Eleanor. ‘I shall not leave you, my little son. I shall be coming to the house every day.’
‘Won’t you be in the house?’ said Honor.
‘No, I shall be in another house quite near.’
‘With him?’ said Gavin, with a gesture towards Ridley.
‘Yes, he will be my husband then.’
‘Is it because of the law?’
‘What do you mean, my boy?’
‘Is it because of the law, that he can’t live here like Father?’
‘The law has nothing to do with it. It seemed a good plan for us to have a home of our own.’
‘I expect it is because of Grandma,’ said Honor.
‘What do you mean, dear child?’
‘Grandma wouldn’t have anyone here instead of Father.’
‘The charm of childhood!’ said Ridley to Eleanor, with a smile.
‘You don’t think that anyone is ever instead of anyone else, do you?’ said Eleanor to Honor.
Honor raised her eyes and kept them on her mother’s.
‘I think that so it must seem to her in a way,’ said Ridley, gently.
‘He will have him instead of Father,’ said Nevill, nodding his head towards Ridley.
‘My poor little man, I fear you will have no choice,’ said Ridley bending over him. ‘No other father will have a place in your memory.’
‘Honor won’t cry any more, now you are instead of Father, Honor doesn’t like Father to go away.’
‘Does she cry?’ said Eleanor, to Mullet.
‘Sometimes when she is in bed, ma’am.’
‘I should have been told.’
Mullet did not say that Honor had repudiated the idea with violence.
‘Honor doesn’t like people to talk about it,’ said Gavin.
‘I don’t mind,’ said his sister.
‘Well, how are you enjoying your holiday?’ said Eleanor, as if it might be realized that there was another side to life. ‘I thought that, as I was happy, I should like you to be so too; so I said you were to have no lessons.’
‘Lessons,’ said Nevill, in a tone of glad anticipation, getting off Mullet’s knee.
‘No, Miss Pilbeam is not coming today,’ said Mullet.
‘She is.’
‘No, today is a holiday.’
‘This attitude does Miss Pilbeam credit,’ said Ridley.
‘He says all he can in favour of people,’ said Gavin, to Honor.
‘Not coming today,’ said Nevill, in a doleful tone that cheered as he ended. ‘But come again tomorrow.’
‘He gets on very well,’ said Eleanor.
‘B, a, t, bat; c, a, t, cat; h, a, t, hat,’ said Nevill, in support of this.
‘He is forward for a boy. It is hard to judge of a young boy’s promise,’ said Eleanor, thinking of James and Gavin and postponing the difficulty.
‘And yet I expect the boys rejoice in their sex,’ said Ridley.
‘What do they do?’ said Gavin.
‘They are glad they will grow up into men,’ said his mother. ‘Would you like to be a woman?’
‘I would as soon be one.’
‘I would rather be a man,’ said Honor.
‘He will be a lady,’ said Nevill.
‘You all seem to want what you cannot have,’ said Eleanor. ‘The children belong more to the mother, you know. Men don’t have so large a share in them.’
‘Father did,’ said Honor.
‘Well, but think for a moment. You were very sad when Father died, but you would have been even more sad if I had died.’
There was a pause.
‘She couldn’t have been more sad,’ said Gavin.
‘I shouldn’t have minded so much about anyone grown-up,’ said Honor, causing Gavin to turn aside with a flush creeping over his face.
‘No doubt we are leading them out of their depth,’ said Ridley.
‘We are understanding everything,’ said Honor.
‘Not the things that lie underneath,’ said Eleanor, in a musing tone, unconscious that she was taking her daughter on equal terms.
‘Are there things like that, when people marry another man?’
‘Now you are out of your depth indeed.’
‘You only pretend that I am.’
‘Of course one’s children think one belongs entirely to them,’ said Eleanor.
‘You haven’t ever done that,’ said Gavin. ‘Not like Hatton and people who really do. But you are supposed to belong to Father.’
‘You know your father is dead, don’t you, my child?’ said Eleanor, in gentle bewilderment.
‘You know I do. You couldn’t be marrying someone else if he wasn’t.’
‘Well, well, we will begin to look forward. It is natural for you to be disturbed at first. But you are not going to lose me. You will hardly know I am not in the house.’
‘Will you be there at dessert?’ said Gavin.
‘Not always, but I shall when Grandma asks me.’
‘Will she have to ask you?’
‘No, but I think she will like to sometimes.’
Nevill looked up with an arrested expression.
‘Mother won’t be there. Only Grandma and Luce,’ he said, mentioning the other two who exercised supervision.
‘Yes, as a rule, but you will come and have tea with me in my house.’
‘Honor and Gavin will too,’ said Nevill, in a tone that assured general goodwill.