‘That may not be the way to see it,’ said Kate. ‘It might argue a want in us.’
‘And no reason but discontent with a life that is better than ours.’
‘We have not the insight into things.’
‘I blame myself,’ said Ainger, seeming to stifle a sigh.
‘Well, no one else blames you,’ said Halliday. ‘What was it to do with you?’
Ainger lifted his eyes and rested them on Halliday’s face.
‘My poor master!’ he said, and said no more.
‘And “poor man”, it seems.’
‘Yes,’ said Ainger, quietly. ‘There is no sting like self-reproach.’
‘And what do you reproach yourself for?’
‘Events cast shadows before. I ought to have foretold it.’
‘Foretold the actual thing?’ said Bennet.
‘Perceived the signs. They ought to have put me on my guard. It was in my power to disperse them, as I had done before. But I went on my own way, blind to his need. I have to say it of myself.’
‘You could not watch him as if he were a child,’ said Kate.
‘It is what I have always done,’ said Ainger, almost giving a smile.
‘Well, it was time you stopped,’ said Halliday.
‘And it seems that he thought so,’ said Mrs Frost.
Does the master hold it against you?’ said Kate.
‘It is a question, Kate. I have asked it of myself. I seem to catch a look in his eye, that speaks to me and says I should have saved him from himself.’
‘He cuts a sorry figure,’ said Halliday.
‘And he was prepared to leave his father desolate,’ said Kate, as if continuing the thought.
‘Now that is what strikes one,’ said Ainger. ‘That is the dark point. The hearts of the two gentlemen are knit to each other. I should not have expected the pitilessness. Things were indeed too much.’
‘It seems there was intervention,’ said Kate.
‘It seems so, Kate. That he was frustrated by a higher hand. By his own he would have left us. It chanced that he resisted the fatal amount. The doctor would have been too late.’
‘His time had not come,’ said Kate. ‘So it is not for us to decide.’
‘He must be a strong man,’ said Bennet.
‘I should hardly say so,’ said Ainger. ‘That is more for the outward eye. It vanishes with understanding. I should say I am the stronger of the two.’
‘Can’t you think of yourself apart from him?’ said Halliday.
‘Well, we are not so often apart.’
‘You talk as if you had no work to do.’
‘He is the main part of it, and becomes more so. He knows it and keeps it in his heart. That is the real reason for Simon’s presence.’
‘You expect to become knit closer?’ said Kate.
‘Or are arranging it,’ said Halliday.
‘Well, nothing stands still in this world,’ said Ainger.
‘It usually seems that everything does,’ said Mrs Frost.
‘How does Simon get on?’ said Bennet, looking at the latter in experienced kindness.
‘He shapes,’ said Ainger. ‘And that is all that is required at the moment.’
‘Until the master absorbs all your energy,’ said Madge.
‘Until then, if you like.’
‘There will be a wound in Mr Clare’s heart that time will not heal,’ said Kate.
‘Time won’t have much chance at his age,’ said Halliday.
‘To leave his grey hairs to go down to the grave!’ said Kate, shaking her head. ‘Was it a son’s part?’
‘A son’s part has been done,’ said Ainger. ‘I stand as a witness to it. Whatever has been left undone, it has not been that.’
‘Does the master love his father better than his wife?’ said Simon.
‘It is not for you to gauge affections,’ said Ainger, ‘or to introduce the family under relationships.’
‘On which side does your sympathy lie, Mr Ainger?’ said Kate.
‘Kate, I will admit it. On the master’s. It may not be the right one or the one favoured by the many, but it is mine. I follow an instinct. It is the guide.’
‘The mistress has done her best.’
‘And wholeheartedly I admit it. No one gives the mistress fuller credit than I. She has striven to her utmost. I am in a position to judge, as in a sense we work together.’
‘And what would you say for the master?’
‘I would say nothing. There is nothing to be said. But the heart does not follow the head’s dictates. My eye goes after him as if he were my child.’
‘He is old enough to be your father,’ said Madge.
‘No, there is not so much between us. A matter of a dozen years. It is more the distance of an elder brother.’
‘That is not your basis,’ said Halliday.
‘It is not,’ said Ainger, smiling. ‘I am rather in the position of the elder myself.’
‘And you are in another position too.’
‘And I hope I fulfil it, Halliday. I should think the less of myself if I did not. And I ask no other. It is a position of trust.’
‘Then we are all in one,’ said Madge.
‘Wholeheartedly I admit it, Madge,’ said Ainger.
‘Perhaps my distance is that of an elder sister,’ said Mrs Frost.
‘Now we will not go through the whole gamut,’ said Ainger.
‘Now that you have dealt with your own part in it.’
‘Well, I think I have a right to, Mrs Frost,’ said Ainger, looking at her frankly. ‘It is one by itself.’
‘What is Simon’s distance?’ said Bennet, smiling.
‘My words may apply in Simon’s case, Miss Bennet,’ said Ainger.
‘The children are fonder of the mistress than the master,’ said Kate.
‘I endorse it, Kate. And it is true of the elder young gentlemen. And the tribute to the mistress speaks. I wish sometimes that their hearts would turn to their father. His is open to them, if they knew. But if they did, he would do something to repel them; he is driven by something within. He is master of everyone in the house but himself.’
‘I am tired of talking about him,’ said Halliday.
‘Then we will drop the subject,’ said Ainger, in a pleasant tone.
‘I will resume it,’ said Mrs Frost. ‘Is he ashamed of what he has done?’
Ainger smiled to himself.
‘Does silence mean consent?’ said Kate.
‘It does not,’ said Ainger. ‘The opposite is implied.’
‘What has he to be proud of?’ said Halliday.
‘I don’t know, Halliday. It does not seem to me that he has anything.’
‘He is not proud of this business?’
‘I would not say he is not. I said he was in some respects a child.’
‘It must have taken courage,’ said Kate.
‘Courage or cowardice?’ said Ainger, lifting his brows. ‘It must be a moot point.’
‘It may be both,’ said Kate.
‘I call it courage,’ said Bennet. ‘I should never dare to do it.’
‘Then of course you call it courage,’ said Mrs Frost; ‘It is only right.’
‘There is something in it,’ said Ainger. ‘To go alone into the dark! I don’t see myself doing it, though I have the courage to face life.’
‘It is strange that we all have it,’ said Kate.
‘I do admire myself,’ said Madge.
‘Well, we know that,’ said Halliday.
‘The round and task,’ said Ainger. ‘There may be more in them than we know.’
‘There is not any more,’ said Mrs Frost. ‘Ah, that is where the courage may lie.’
‘What next?’ said Halliday. ‘You will soon think it needs courage to sit down to your meals.’
‘Well, who shall say?’ said Ainger. ‘I will,’ said Mrs Frost. ‘It needs none.’
‘I do not know,’ said Ainger. ‘Meals may be a crucial point. I am often glad I do not sit down to those in the dining-room. It is enough to be a witness of them.’