“Yield to the temptation,” said Ninian. “It is not one to be resisted.”
“She will want to see her room,” said Agnes. “Shall I take her to it?”
“Now there is a thing to be said,” said Ninian. “The name is to be Teresa for the two elder ones, and Mamma for the rest. So now there will be no question.”
“So you have simply to remember,” said Miss Starkie. “And nothing more need be said.”
“It will be easier for you, Miss Starkie,” said Ninian.
“It will open up a new era, Mr. Middleton. I shall not dare to look back on the last one.”
“What is an era?” said Leah.
“A historical period. I used the word ironically. Now we will talk of something else.”
“I suppose Mamma is a sort of feeble word for Mother?” said Leah, obeying the injunction.
“They mean almost the same. Mamma is perhaps a lighter word. Now there is an end of the matter.”
“We shan’t have so much to talk about,” said Hengist.
“You will make the best of what there is.”
“How I wish I was not here!” said Hugo to Lavinia. “It is humbling to be forced to stay. And they say poverty is no disgrace. I wonder what put the word into their heads.”
“It is best to get the meeting over. Have you spoken to Teresa?”
“I will speak to her at once. I will try to be a man. I will anyhow be an imitation.”
Hugo went up to Teresa.
“I suppose you hardly recognise me. I am so different from what you thought. And I forgot to ask if I could be your brother. But it did not matter, as I was to become so anyhow. This will do for our first word. I could not leave it to you.”
“Not if I could not recognise you. Now I shall be able to.”
“You will see me as I am. I am always seen in that way. I have had to get used to it. I am grateful to you for trying to see me differently. I have had something in my life. It is more than I expected.”
“We do usually have less. But many of us expect too much. We hardly like to remember what it was.”
“What is the best thing to have?” said Egbert. “We are told it is not wealth and ease. I suppose for fear we should think it was. It is sad how we understand it.”
“Anyone who does not, is without understanding,” said Selina. “I don’t mean that I should choose it.”
“You would not dare to mean it,” said Hugo. “I almost believe I should. The best thing about wealth is that it is never shared.”
“It ought to be,” said Lavinia.
“That almost seems to make it better.”
“The good thing about it is the power to share it.”
“But a better one is that the power is not used.”
“I suppose it is not. It is a hard thing to explain.”
“I hardly think it is,” said Ninian. “Wealth is the thing that can be shared. We cannot share looks or gifts or charm. I daresay we should not, if we could. If we had them, I mean.”
“Oh, of course you mean that, Father,” said Lavinia, laughing.
“None of us likes to be copied,” said Egbert. “And I suppose that is trying to share.”
“Trying to steal,” said his grandmother.
“I have always known they were the same,” said Hugo.
“We have not settled on the best thing in life,” said Lavinia.
“Human friendship?” said Egbert.
“But it is sometimes shared,” said Hugo.
“And it is uncertain,” said Teresa. “We want something we cannot lose.”
“A clear conscience?” said Ninian.
“We can surely lose that,” said Lavinia, continuing at once. “Not that many of us do in any real sense.”
“I should have thought we all did,” said Hugo. “Perhaps that shows it is the best. We should naturally lose that.”
“Real achievement?” said Selina.
“But we don’t know a case of it,” said Lavinia. “So we can’t ask if it is the best. And anyhow no one would dare to answer.”
“It depends what kind of achievement you mean,” said Teresa.
“Not service to humanity,” said Hugo. “No one could feel that the best.”
“Some people might,” said Lavinia. “Those who could give it.”
“People with religion,” said Egbert. “Who feel they will be rewarded in the end.”
“That might be a good thing,” said Hugo. “But from what is said of it, I hardly think the best.”
“Real achievement would be independent of reward,” said Ninian. “The reward would be in itself.”
“I knew there was some drawback,” said Hugo. “Fancy having to provide the reward as well as earn it!”
“It is said that effort is its own reward,” said Lavinia. “Perhaps that is why it often has no other.”
“What should we really choose?” said Ninian. “We have not said.”
“An affection that would last,” said Teresa; “in ourselves as well as in someone else; that would be a basis for our lives.”
“That would be my choice,” said Lavinia.
“Well, may you both have it,” said Selina, in benevolence. “Try to give it to each other.”
“It could hardly be done under instruction.” said Ninian.
“Affection often lasts,” said Hugo. “We don’t often have the interest of seeing people lose it. It would always last in me, if they asked it of me. But they might almost think I had none to give.”
“Perhaps they might quite think so,” said Teresa, in a low tone, with a smile.
“So you can say such a thing to me. I could not to you. I somehow feel I am returning good for evil.”
“Does anyone ever do that?” said Selina.
“Not you, Grandma, if you can’t believe in it,” said Lavinia. “And it is hard to see why anyone should. It may be a sign of weakness.”
“It must be,” said Egbert. “No one could want to do it.”
“People might do it out of their strength,” said Teresa.
“I will not imagine them,” said Hugo. “I should not dare.”
“We might do it for our credit or self-esteem,” said Ninian. “Perhaps that should hardly count.”
“We should feel the last,” said Egbert. “I don’t see how it could be avoided.”
“What other reasons are there?” said Hugo. “I cannot think of any.”
“It is not as plain as you all think,” said Lavinia.
“Why, have you personal knowledge or experience?” said Ninian.
“You should not ask dreadful questions,” said Hugo. “You deserve to have a dreadful answer.”
“He will not have one,” said Lavinia. “It would not do for us to meet our deserts.”
“So he has had one,” said Selina, almost to herself.
“Are we talking of actual evil?” said Ninian, as if he had not heard. “Or of natural effort for our own welfare?”
“Oh, that is almost too evil to speak about,” said Hugo. “Some subjects should be forbidden.”
“Well, are we to talk about ourselves and each other? Is that a better or safer thing? People might take the chance to speak the truth.”
“Only terrible people. But of course that is nearly everyone.”
“Is our choice of subjects so small?” said Egbert.
“Well, it is for me,” said Hugo. “I only like the personal ones. And no one really seems to introduce any others.”
“Then would you like to speak the truth about people?”
“Yes, if I were not afraid to. But I think it is a wholesome fear.”
“Why should the truth be against them?” said Lavinia.
“We meant the truth that is spoken about them. That deals with what they think is hidden. And it ought to be hidden no doubt. They are the ones to judge.”