Elders and Betters (14 page)

“No, I don't think so, Julius,” said Miss Lacy. “Think again.”

“Julius has thought enough,” said Thomas.

“Dora is an ordinary name,” said Julius, in a tone of congratulation to his sister.

“I don't think Theodora is, but I don't mind about my name.”

“I think that is wise,” said Jessica.

“I feel that Terence is a good name for me,” said the bearer of it. “An ordinary name might make me seem unmanly. I could not carry off Thomas.”

Florence gave him a faint smile.

“Why not regard a name as something that separates us, for the convenience of other people?” said Jessica.

“That is what we should like to do,” said Tullia, “but we were not given the chance. Our names do other things in spite of us.”

“You must not reproach your father, Tulliola,” said Thomas. “He would have nothing ordinary for you.”

Tullia put her arm in his, and Florence's eyes swept over them.

“Are you talking about names?” said another voice. “Then what do you say to going through life under the blight of Susan, and the secondary one of Sukey?”

“The latter is a name that does what may be required of it,” said Miss Lacy.

“Well, some people have liked my funny little name for me. I believe a good many people have.”

“Anyone would like the name, Sukey,” said Florence.

“Do you think so, my dear?” said Sukey, coming to shake hands. “There is a pleasant word for me, for the first one that I hear. It makes me feel that I shall hear some more, and that we may like other things about each other.”

Florence looked at the speaker's face, because she had no choice, continued to look in spite of herself, cast a glance at Jessica and dropped her eyes.

“You see the likeness between my sister and me?” said Sukey.

“No, I don't see much. I never think people are really like one another.”

“But you notice the family likeness?”

“Oh, family likeness,” said Florence, almost to herself.

“It is true that it may not go far down,” said Thomas.

“Looks are only skin deep,” said his wife.

“It is beauty that is said to be that,” said Tullia. “I never know why it is not said of the other thing. It seems rather unfair on either side.”

“A pleasant surface makes us think there are pleasant things underneath,” said Sukey. “I could never believe that is not the case.”

Florence turned to Terence and spoke as if she could not suppress the words.

“What a pity that a name like Sukey belongs to anyone but your mother!”

“Why? Do you like the name very much?”

“It ought to go with a face that has her sort of look in it. It is a look that puts her apart from other people, and yet on a level with them. I have never seen a face like hers.”

“My aunt is thought to have more beauty.”

“Yes, I daresay she has that.”

“It is not such a common thing.”

“No, but it might belong to anyone,” said Florence, resting her eyes on Tullia. “And here it seems to belong to so many people.”

“You know my aunt is a great invalid?”

“Yes, Aunt Emma told me, but that is an accidental thing. We cannot think of people in terms of a chance.”

Terence was silent, looking into her face.

“Well, we will not talk of sad things on your friend's first day with us,” said Sukey's voice. “And that only
means that we must not talk about me. There is nothing else sad in this house. All is happy and careless and free, and only asks for sympathy with joy. It is only if anyone needs a word on any other ground, that I would suggest seeking my room and my companionship. Not that there is only sadness to be met with there. I am a resolute person and keep my own ways, even on the threshold of—well, we need not say of what.”

“Aunt Sukey should insult us to our faces, if she does it at all,” said Terence.

“She did it in our hearing,” said Thomas. “We will not complain.”

Florence's lips just parted in a smile, but she did not raise her eyes.

Benjamin came from the back of the hall, having remained in the house since his hour with his sister. Miss Lacy lifted Florence's hand towards him.

“This is my little niece, Mr. Donne,” she said, hardly looking at either.

“And this is an elderly man in whom she can take no interest,” said Benjamin, shaking hands with the guest and producing no sign of disagreement.

“But here are the man's children, in whom she can,” said Sukey.

Florence turned towards the gate with a faintly sighing movement, as it admitted the further addition to her new friends.

Anna led the way with her usual hurrying step, looking neither to one side nor the other. Bernard and Reuben advanced together, with Jenney on Reuben's other side. Esmond and Claribel walked apart, in an aloofness that extended to each other.

“Now I should manage the introductions, as I am responsible for the need of them,” said Miss Lacy. “I must present my niece, Florence, to Miss Bell and Miss Jennings; and add that these are Bernard, Anna, Esmond, and Reuben Donne, to the best of my conviction and remembrance.”

“I think that a duty to convention is best performed in the ordinary way,” said Anna to Sukey. “Miss Lacy seems to manage to make people look a little ridiculous. I should not like to be left to her tender mercies in the larger matters of life.”

“You could depend on her in those,” said Sukey. “It is on the surface that she presents this front, and we have all got rather fond of it.”

“No, I am not quite with you, Aunt Sukey,” said Anna, shaking her head. “I don't put her on a level with you and Aunt Jessica.”

Sukey did not say that her niece had exaggerated her requirements.

“How many new people has she had to see?” said Dora, with a pointing movement towards Florence.

“Fourteen,” said the latter, with unexpected precision, in a tone of polite response to Dora.

“Dora is young to concern herself with another person's point of view,” said Bernard.

“I always think of what people are thinking,” said Dora. “If they didn't think, they wouldn't be people.”

“Now, Miss Jennings, how do you do?” said Miss Lacy, making a deliberate way towards Jenney. “I have promised myself a talk with you. I want to take advantage of your experience of the young, now that I have a young creature of my own to supervise and satisfy.”

“How do you do, Miss Lacy?” said Jenney, shaking hands and going no further.

Florence rested her eyes on Jenney's face, transferred them to Jessica's, as if expecting something in common, swept them over the other faces and brought them to rest on Sukey's, surprised to find what she sought.

“Now you two children must run to the nursery,” said Jessica. “Your luncheon will be brought up there. There is no room for you at the table.”

“Shall we have the same things?” said Julius.

“Yes, I will see to it myself. Father will carve for you
at the same time as the others,” said Jessica, who never despoiled the young.

Julius and Dora ran to the door, welcoming the prospect of freedom without a price.

“NOW, MISS LACY, will you lead us in?” said Thomas.

“Well, I feel it does need a certain initiative,” said Miss Lacy, laughing and going to the door.

Thomas remained on his feet at the head of the table. Grace at meals was the custom in his home, though he said it without conviction and sometimes with discomfiture. Jessica's word on such matters was law, and he had been surprised to find how many of the kind there were, not having grasped the truth of her assertion that religion entered into the whole of life. The discovery that it was her habit to pray for him, marked a stage in their relation; and it was at this time that Jessica realised that she was second to his daughter in his heart.

“Thirteen at the table!” said Tullia, checking herself as she was about to sit down.

“What does that mean?” said Bernard.

“That the person who sits down first, will be dead within a certain time; I forget how long,” said Tullia, in a tone of merely quoting a belief.

“Then I ought to be the one to do so,” said Sukey, not seeming to think of suiting her action to her words. “It is so much more likely for me than for anyone else.”

“Then do not dream of it, Aunt Sukey,” said Bernard. “You would be sustaining too many of the threats of fate.”

“Well, I will do as I am told,” said Sukey, continuing to stand.

Thomas's eyes had a smile in them, as they went from face to face. He was free from superstition and at ease to observe the scene;

“Men wait until the women are seated,” said Terence.

“Perhaps it is true that the real demands of life fall on the latter,” said Miss Lacy.

“It is a good thing the children are not here,” said Florence in a serious tone.

“It would save the situation,” said Bernard. “We should be fifteen.”

“We do not remedy it by not sitting down,” said Benjamin. “Our anxiety can only be transferred to other people.”

“If you do not feel it is improved, you are a person by yourself,” said Terence.

“Father does not deny he is that,” said Bernard.

Benjamin did not do so, but had his own grounds for the belief.

“I am superstitious, I know,” said Anna, standing at a distance from her chair. “I am not going to pretend I am not.”

“Aren't you really?” said Terence. “Then you cannot pretend that you do not rank your life above other people's.”

“Well, everyone does that.”

“No, you do not pretend,” said her cousin, “but I think I am still going to.”

“Shall I go and fetch the children?” said Reuben, his voice betraying complacence in his separation from these.

“I do not mind being the first to sit down,” said Jenney, in a hesitating tone.

“No, don't do it, Jenney,” said Reuben at once.

“I wonder how many of us really believe it,” said Tullia, tapping her fingers on the table.

“We cannot say that,” said Bernard. “We see it is a deep and universal faith.”

“No one is sure that there might not be ‘something in it,' ” said Miss Lacy. “These things may have some reason behind them, some series of links in their history.”

“Something more powerful than history is here,” said Thomas.

“How dreadful we all think it is to die!” said Jenney, in a deprecating tone.

“Of course we do,” said Terence. “Or why should we send for doctors when we are in danger of it, and execute people when they inflict it on us?”

“Perhaps this little difficulty may give you some insight into my life, as I live it day by day,” said Sukey.

“I really thought of that at once,” said Bernard.

“Yes, I think several of you did,” said Sukey.

“It may give us some insight into ourselves,” said Anna.

“That is what I was going to say,” said Jessica.

“Then we are at one, Aunt Jessica, for once.”

“Somehow that does seem odd,” murmured Terence.

“Quite true; I quite agree,” said his cousin.

“But it is nice of Aunt Sukey,” said Terence. “She persists in thinking good of people. If she did not, I don't know what she would think.”

“That her position was not too good,” said Anna, in a mutter.

“Did we need insight into ourselves?” said Bernard. “It is a matter on which it is hard to be deceived. We can only hope that other people are deceived about us.”

“We know they can't be, as they can judge us by themselves,” said Terence.

Miss Lacy went into laughter, and gave her chair an audible pull, as if she might sit down on it at any moment.

Florence regarded the action with an enigmatic face.

“It doesn't seem that we ought to feel like this,” said Jenney, looking at her chair with an almost wistful expression.

“Well, we never meant people to know we did,” said Bernard.

“It is the
last
person who sits down, who takes the risk,” said Thomas, with his lips grave.

“Is this pause a real one?” said Terence. “It seems to be full of so much.”

“We are living at our highest pitch,” said Bernard. “The moment will live in our memory.”

“So I always live at a higher pitch than other people,”
said Sukey. “When I see how this touch of imaginary risk affects them, I feel that I may live as much in my short time as they in their long one. It is true that we live in deeds, not years.”

The grating of a chair was heard, and Tullia sank into it, as if she lacked the energy to stand for another moment. Sukey did the same, as if it were also for her the only course. A chorus of grating ensued, and as people glanced about to be assured of their personal timeliness, Jessica was seen to be standing by her chair with her usual expression.

“We ought not to let a superstition influence our actions. And I thought Miss Jennings meant to be the last, and we could not let a guest do that for us.”

“Surely some confusion of thought,” murmured Tullia, stooping forward in an attitude of exhaustion.

“When will Mother sit down?” said Terence. “And who was the last to do so, if she does not?”

Jessica gave him a smile and took her seat.

“Well, as Aunt Jessica has sacrificed herself, there is nothing to do but take advantage of it,” said Anna, unfolding her napkin.

Tullia followed the example, seeming hardly to know what she did. Sukey turned to her neighbour and spoke with a faint smile.

“Well, whatever risk my sister has taken, it is not more than I face with every hour of my life.”

“Aunt Sukey's reactions are so natural,” said Terence. “They are what mine would be in her place. And I find that so surprising.”

“Well, now, how do we feel about it?” said Miss Lacy. “Is our uneasiness for ourselves transferred to another? Or did we not really have any uneasiness, or how was it?”