“Then you are quite comfortable?”
She nodded.
“I can manage. But what I want to say is that Collison House is your home, Kate. I don’t look on it as my house. It was in your family for years. It’s yours, Kate, as well as mine, and if at any time you wanted to come there… Well, in short, it’ll always be your home as well as mine.”
So we talked, and in time Kendal came running in. He was very interested to see that we had a caller. I explained who Clare was, for he had been too young to remember when she came to Paris.
I was proud because I could see that she thought him a very fine boy.
Jeanne returned. She remembered Clare and I explained that she had come to stay with us for a while. Jeanne was pleased to see her and Clare was very happy to get such a warm welcome from everyone.
Jeanne cooked a meal for us and we all sat round the table talking Kendal being allowed to stay up as it was a special occasion.
There was an extra bedroom in the Loge, so accommodating Clare was an easy matter. Jeanne made up the bed and when I took Clare to her room I kissed her tenderly and told her how pleased I was that she had come.
I said goodnight and left her, but I lay awake a long time that night.
Clare’s coming had made me think of my father and as I mourned him afresh I kept thinking of what state of mind he must have been in when he had decided to take his life.
Then a thought struck me suddenly.
Clare’s coming had brought my solution. I could leave France with her.
I could go back to Collison House and make my life there. And if I could not attract rich sitters, I had a small fortune waiting for me in the miniatures. I knew the value of them now. Some of the sixteenth-century ones mus^ individually, be worth a great deal of money. “
Suppose I sold one . or even two . to give me enough money to set up a studio in London. I did not want to sell any of them, of course, but if it were necessary I must do so.
It was a way out.
Until now I had believed the situation was insoluble. It was no longer so. I no longer had the excuse to stay here for the sake of Kendal because we had nowhere else to go.
We had. Clare’s coming had opened up a way out.
Clare’s arrival caused quite a flurry of excitement at the castle.
When I went over the following morning to work on the manuscripts, a message from the Princesse awaited me. Would I go to her room? She wished to speak to me.
She was lying in bed she never rose very early and was propped up with pillows. A cup of chocolate was by her bed.
"I hear you have a visitor from England,” she said.
“Yes, my stepmother.”
“I did not know you had a stepmother. You didn’t tell me when you came to paint me.”
I was surprised that she should remember so much about me.
“I did not have one at the time,” I explained.
“She married my father afterwards.”
“She is … not an old woman?”
“No, quite young. A few years older than I …”
“She sought you here?”
“Yes, I wrote to her from here soon after I came. I knew she would be anxious about what was happening to me in Paris. My letter took a long time to reach her but she finally received it and instead of writing she decided to come and see me.”
“She sounds … adventurous.”
“Well, I’d hardly say that. But she would go to a great deal of trouble for people she cared about.”
“So she cares much for you?”
“I think so.”
“There is a tradition that stepmothers never like children of the first marriage.”
I laughed.
“Clare is not in the least like the traditional stepmother.
She is more like a sister. She has been a friend of mine from the moment I met her, which was before I came to France. “
“You must allow me to meet her.”
“I will bring her to see you, if I may.”
“This afternoon. I am eager to meet your stepmother.”
“What time would you like me to come?”
“Four o’clock. After I have had my rest.”
“I am sure she will be delighted to meet you.”
“Is she going to stay long?”
“I don’t know. She arrived only yesterday. We had so much to talk about. We hardly stopped all last evening.”
“What of your father? Did he not come with her?”
“My father is dead.”
“Dead? Oh yes, I remember I did hear something of it. He was going blind. Such cruel things happen to people …” She looked melancholy for a moment; then she brightened.
“Yes, bring her to me this afternoon. I want very much to meet her.”
The meeting between the Princesse and Clare was an immediate success.
Clare’s luminous brown eyes were full of compassion and in a very short time the Princesse was telling her other invalidism, which was a subject very dear to her heart.
She explained to Clare that this was not one other good days. I had heard this many times before and although I had expressed sorrow at her indisposition, I had never been able to imply very great sympathy, for I had always felt that she made a fetish of her illnesses and if only she would not concentrate so wholeheartedly on them, she would be much better.
Clare, however, had always had immediate sympathy for lame ducks. She was truly compassionate towards them, and they, sensing her sympathy to be genuine, were drawn towards her.
Thus it was with Clare and the Princesse, and after a very short time Clare was receiving detailed accounts of the Princesse’s afflictions.
Clare admitted that she too had the occasional headache or had done until she had found a miraculous cure. It was a herb concoction which she made herself. She never travelled without it. Perhaps she could persuade the Princesse to try a dose. The Princesse declared that she would be delighted.
“I could hand it in at the castle tomorrow,” said Clare.
“Oh, but you must bring it to me yourself,” was the Princesse’s reply.
Clare said it would give her the greatest pleasure.
“I hope that you will plan to stay here a little while,” said the Princesse, ‘and do not intend to rush away quickly. “
“How kind and hospitable everyone is!” cried Clare.
“I had to come to see how Kate was. I could not bear the suspense any longer. ‘ll is so kind of you to let her stay here … and now to be so welcoming to me.”
“My husband, the Baron, arranged for the occupation of the Loge.”
There was a sharp note in her voice which I believed Clare had noticed.
“Yes. Kate told me how it was … how they came from Paris.” v “They were in a sad state when they arrived here.”
“But completely recovered now,” said Clare, smiling at me.
“They have such good health,” the Princesse sighed. I thought: She is working round to her favourite topic again.
“It would have killed me,” she added.
“Good health is one of the best gifts fate can bestow,” said Clare.
It was small wonder that we all liked Clare. She had the gift of being whatever her companions wished her to be at the time. With my father she had talked art and learned a little about it; with me she discussed my predicament and the best way out of it; and with the Princesse it would have appeared that illness and its remedies were of greater interest to her than anything else.
“You have been a great success with the lady,” I said as we came out of the castle and made our way to the Loge.
“Poor Princesse,” she said.
“She’s a very unhappy woman. That is why she concerns herself so wholeheartedly with her ailments.”
“One would have thought you had given a life time’s study to them this afternoon.”