“She could stay in her home. What if you had not returned?”
“We will shun the thought, as she does.”
“What shall we do without her?” said Egbert.
“You can stand on your own feet,” said his father.
“Neither of us does so. We depend on each other.”
“Come to see her when you like,” said Ransom.
“Thank you, Uncle, I will.”
“I will not come often at first,” said Ninian.
“No, you must earn your welcome.”
“I am Lavinia’s father.”
“So you are learning it. Come when you have done so.”
“You talk as if I were a stern father. Lavinia has not been dealt with hardly. She has to learn right from wrong. Indeed she knows it.”
“There are many kinds of wrong, as has been said.”
“If Lavinia were your child, you would feel as I do.”
“We cannot be sure. I hope I should feel as I do now.”
“Unmarried people’s children are always the best managed.”
“If that is true, take a lesson from one.”
“I may come with Egbert to see Lavinia?” said Hugo.
“Yes, as often as you please.”
“And I too?” said Teresa.
“Yes, yes, as often.”
“I don’t see much good in her leaving home, if she is to be followed by everyone,” said Ninian.
“Not by everyone,” said Ransom. “And not to her home.”
“Ransom, I am glad from my heart to welcome you. And grieved to my heart by the news of your health. I hope my girl will be a comfort to you. I may be allowed to say that.”
“I hope so too. I have thought of it. I shall serve myself.”
“You will not take a light view of the trouble? It is the last thing for her at this time.”
“I take none. At this time, as you say. She has her own knowledge of it.”
“Well, I can do nothing,” said Ninian.
“No, you have done what you could. We say that no one can do more. And that may be fortunate, considering the conditions under which it is usually said.”
“You talk in a strange way. Lavinia has been my dearest child.”
“Has been? What is she? What is she to be? You needed a companion and used her as one. And threw her away when you chose another. It had to lead to something, and it led to this. It means nothing.”
“Did Miss Starkie tell you all this?”
“She answered my questions. She did not know what she told me. She is used to teaching with her mind astray”
“The letters have come, ma’am,” said Ainger at the door, his eyes wavering from Selina to Teresa in an uncertainty he had not resolved. “Will Miss Lavinia sort them?”
“She is going to stay with Mr. Ransom,” said Ninian. “I will sort them for her. And in future I will do it myself.”
“What is behind it, Cook?” said Ainger in the hall. “There is something beyond even me.”
“Well, is your sphere so wide? And complacence occurs as we go downwards.”
“Then you can look for it in me,” said another voice. “And expect to find it.”
“I do not look for anything in you, James. The idea not having struck me. And is the hall your place? — And when I speak, I await reply.”
“You didn’t speak to me.”
“Oh, there is this trouble with the name, Cook,” said Ainger, idly. “He is one thing to himself and another to everyone else.”
“I am myself and no other person,” said James, with a heat the words hardly seemed to warrant.
“And is it so much to be?” said Cook. “That you claim it in the face of everything? The self you refer to is known as James, to those who are aware of it.”
“I am myself and not the last boy.”
“It is a good thing you are not both. But whichever you are, you hear who speaks,” said Ainger, perhaps hardly avoiding the resented confusion.
“Yes,” said James, more faintly, glancing at Cook.
“Yes—?”
“Yes, sir,” said James, as he disappeared.
“Not a penny of mine for his thoughts,” said Ainger. “They are not worth it.”
“They are hardly my concern, his actions happening to suffice.”
“But I am glad I am not under anyone.”
“We are all under Someone, Ainger. I am myself,” said Cook, in full humility.
“Are you indeed? Is it a piece of news? You would hardly be the Someone, I suppose?”
“I should not,” said Cook, gravely. “You are right to suppose it. It not being a matter for doubt.”
“I sometimes wonder how much doubt you have of it.”
“I am silent, Ainger, the words not calling for reply.”
The speakers moved aside, as Lavinia came downstairs, and Selina and her sons and grandson entered the hall. Ninian’s glance went to his daughter’s coat, swept over the pocket and withdrew. Hugo and Egbert followed it and dropped their eyes.
“Good-bye, my child,” said Selina. “Be careful of yourself and my son. I am glad to feel you are with him.”
“Good-bye, my daughter,” said Ninian, stooping to her gravely and saying no more.
“I will not say good-bye,” said Teresa. “I shall see you too soon.”
“Anyone can see her, who wants to do that,” said Ransom.
The uncle and niece went together from the house, seeming in their different ways to lean on each other. Ninian waited for the carriage to start, and turned away. Selina sat down in the hall and sank into tears.
“What is it, Mother?” said her son.
“So you need to ask? You cannot need to know.”
“It is Ransom. But we hope for the best. Anyhow you have seen him again.”
“When I might have had him always! How little I have had! How little!”
Ninian led her away and the others followed them.
“If anything else happens,” said Egbert, “I shall not be conscious of it. I can’t be alive to any more. But I hardly think anything can. It has all done so.”
“We must take our courage in both hands. If we take it in one, perhaps we cannot use it. There are still things to come. Ransom will die; Lavinia will return; your father will sort the letters. There will only be one change from the past, but what a change!”
Selina sat down on a lower chair than usual, looking smaller than usual herself. She spoke as if continuing her words.
“I had rather he was well and away from me, than with me and near to his death. He is to lose everything. Others will have what is his. They will have what he has worked for. And they would rather have it than him. Their thought is on themselves.”
“It is on their home and mine, as his has been,” said Ninian. “It is his wish that we should have it, and our descendants after us. Not to welcome it would show ingratitude, and be unworthy of us and him.”
“Yes, you may be grateful. You must be. You will have everything and he will have nothing. And I shall not have my son.”
“You have hardly had him for many years,” said Hugo.
“As much as I have had you. I have looked for his letters and thought of him. And it is everything to hope.”
“And you have valued him for his absence,” said Ninian. “You have imagined him more than himself. That is why his presence has failed you.”
Selina turned away and sank into herself and silence.
“So your future is safe, Ninian,” said Hugo. “Ransom is your benefactor, and you are humbled before him. But your mother would humble you too far.”
“She may exalt him as much as she pleases,” said Ninian, in a rising tone. “A great burden is lifted off me, a threat from the lands of my fathers. I have lived alone with the anxiety. I will share the relief. As I realise it, I grudge him nothing. I grudge myself what I shall have, that should be his. I grudge myself my very gratitude. But it comes from my heart. I hope I shall be able to show it.”