Ever After (15 page)

Virginia and Dinah shook hands, and Bracken bestowed the chocolates with something less than his usual ease of manner. Dinah was even more surprised than Lord Enstone had been.

“Are these all for me?” she inquired, gazing at the box he had laid in her lap, and Bracken’s left eyebrow rose alarmingly.

“Dinah, when will you learn that I do not bring you
second-hand
gifts? I bought those chocolates for you, I’ve brought them to you, and I expect you to eat them all, even if it makes you sick!”

Dinah pulled off the ribbon and lifted the lid, and the top layer was revealed—nice fat shiny black chocolates, with a liberal
sprinkling
of the kind that are wrapped in coloured tinfoil.

“I’ve always wondered how it would be to choose the very first one,” she murmured.

“But surely you’ve had chocolates before,” he said, watching her.

“This is the first box I’ve ever had all to myself,” she explained. “Sounds greedy, doesn’t it! Clare doesn’t like the hard ones, so she leaves those for me. Aren’t they beautiful?” she said seriously to Miss French. “It seems a pity to spoil it.”

“Not before lunch, Dinah,” said Miss French, and Dinah offered the box heroically to her guests, who quickly said No, thanks, not before lunch.

“Don’t they
smell
good!” she said then, inhaling. “Thank you so much, Mr. Murray. I shall make them last ever so long.”

“That might be a nuisance,” he said. “There are lots more in the shop. How’s the knee? Feel any better?”

“Not much better. I feel as though I’d never walk again!”

“Well, that won’t do, because you’ve got to come over to Farthingale for tea some day,” said Virginia, and Dinah brightened.

“And see the house? Did Father say I could?”

“I haven’t asked him yet, but I will. We’re going back to Town next week because I’ve got the Drawing Room on the eleventh, but we’ll be down again soon after.”

“Clare is being presented oh the eleventh too!” cried Dinah. “How lovely for you both to go together! Are you nervous?”

“No, is Clare?”

“She says not. I’m going to die of fright when my time comes, I know I am!” Dinah’s shoulders hunched in a childish shudder.

“If only I don’t trip!” said Virginia light-heartedly. “I’ll let you know the minute we come down again, and you’ll be seeing a lot of us this summer. Bracken has to rest, he’s had too much hard work and worry. We ought to go now, Bracken, they’ll be waiting. Goodbye, Dinah—don’t forget about coming to tea!” Virginia swept him away and down the stairs.

“Do you really suppose she’s never had a box of chocolates before?” he said in a daze, as they reached the lower gallery.

“I’ve told you, Bracken, it’s the system over here! A girl is an absolute
Cinderella
till all of a sudden she comes out and is expected to hold up her end and make a good marriage! Of course it’s worse for Dinah because her mother is dead and Clare
probably
bullies her, and the men would never think. She
is
lovely, Bracken!”

“Who, Dinah?”

“
Clare
, stupid! I don’t wonder you’ve been absent-minded ever since you had breakfast here! Clare is rather a change from Lisl, isn’t she! Shall you tell them about Lisl?”

“Or shall I just wear a sign around my neck that says
CANCELLED
?” he asked bitterly.

“Oh, darling, I only meant—”

“You only meant Be Careful. I will.”

When they reached the drawing room Clare and Sue were making conversation on the sofa by the fire and the men were just returning from the gun-room where they had stolen a quick whisky before lunch, to keep the chill out. Lord Enstone was saying cheerfully:

“Well, Carpers, my boy—where’s the next war? South Africa, what?”

“Or Germany, which?” asked the Major, gravitating to Sue’s side.

“War with
Germany
?
Oh, how
grim
!” Clare objected gaily, and Virginia gave it as her opinion that Sir Gratian was an awful pessimist.

“We got rather the impression at home that Germany’s next quarrel was going to be with Austria,” Bracken said, pricking up his ears as always when somebody said War.

“It won’t stop there. Germany is ruled by a half-cracked buffoon,” said Lord Enstone flatly. “He’s got his eye on China, I don’t mind telling you. He’s chucking his weight about in the Balkans. He’s egging Kruger on in South Africa. He hates us like poison because we’ve got a Fleet. Once his grandmother is gone, we’ll have him to deal with sooner or later. And Victoria can’t live for ever, poor soul. But I think,” he said, gazing into the fire like a seer, “I think South Africa will come first.”

“I never can see how the Kaiser comes into South Africa,” Clare said, in pretty confusion.

“He doesn’t, by rights,” her father replied. “But he is a
megalomaniac
. Got to watch out for him. Isn’t that right, Carpers? Think we can stay out of this Balkan mess, what?”

“If we let Greece go under.”

“Got to.” Lord Enstone sighed. “Nasty business, though, in Crete.” He turned on Bracken, his shaggy eyebrows down. “You’ve
got something on your own doorstep, too. Cuba. What are you going to do about that, eh?”

“I’m afraid we’ll have to kick them out,” said Bracken quietly. “Spain, I mean.”

“Good for you!”

“We oughtn’t to have that kind of goings-on in the New World—concentration camps, starving women and children, ruthless killing of non-combatants and hostages—they even got a War
Correspondent
!” Bracken winced elaborately. “That’s got to stop!”

“You think America will intervene, eh?” the Earl asked keenly.

“We may have to, if it keeps on.”

“How about this fellow McKinley, then? Good man?”

“Very good. But slow to anger.”

“Luncheon is served, my lord,” said a voice at the door.

Luncheon was a very gay meal, with no more talk of wars. Virginia flirted outrageously with Alwyn, who responded somewhat in the manner of a St. Bernard dog chasing a rubber ball, and even with Lord Enstone, who twirled his moustache and visibly warmed towards her. Sue sat next to shy Archie, and succeeded in making him talk about his sister Dinah. Bracken, upon whom Clare turned the full battery of her robust charm, heard Archie saying in his clear Cambridge accents, “And it isn’t as though Dinah were a
tremendously
reckless or even brave person when she does these things. It’s as though she were afraid of being afraid, really, and dared
herself
to punish her own courage. I know, because I’m somewhat the same way myself. Now you take Edward, or on the other hand—” Bracken had lost the thread of Clare’s talk, and had to apologize.

“What a
handsome
gang of men those Campions are!” exclaimed Virginia on the way home. “And just think, there are two more brothers—Oliver in the Army and John at Westminster! You had the best one, Aunt Sue, what did you and Archie talk about?”

“Ah, but you ought to see Oliver!” Sir Gratian teased her. “He’s the pick of the lot! Not married yet, either. You’d better be quick, though!”

“I’d hate to marry a soldier of the Queen,” said Virginia thoughtlessly. “India, Singapore, Egypt, Malta, the West Indies—besides, you’d never see anything of him!”

“Yes, it’s a ghastly life for a woman,” Sir Gratian agreed, and brooded all the rest of the way back to Farthingale, while Bracken contemplated his sister with new respect for being such a clever judge of men. It took a great deal of common or horse sense, he felt, to notice Archie at all in the dynamic presence of the showy Viscount and his impressive father.

L
ORD
E
NSTONE
had consented, after some financial hemming and hawing, and a good deal of filial pressure by Clare, to open and staff the house in St. James’s Square for the month of May. His sister, Lady Davenant, was to act as Clare’s chaperone and as her sponsor at the Drawing Room, and Viscount Alwyn took the opportunity to do some entertaining on a suitable scale, even though the Earl refused to come up to Town and participate. The blue and yellow Enston livery appeared again, and the footmen were powdered and breeched, a matched pair of them to open the door and serve the wines. Champagne was sent up from the Hall, and the silver came out of the vault under Nash’s supervision and was cleaned by the underbutler for use at dinner parties where twenty guests sat down to seven courses and five wines. Clare would drive to the Palace in the family brougham, which also had to come up from the country, together with the coachmen and the tiger.

For days no one had troubled to hand down a decision as to whether Dinah and Miss French should be left behind at the Hall or accompany Clare and Alwyn to London. At the last minute Miss French, who was human enough to long for a sight of the Town now and then, convinced Lord Enstone that Dinah should visit the dentist and go to the Academy and hear some concerts, and that her injured knee was quite equal to the journey.

Dinah had been at St. James’s Square for nearly a week before Virginia, practising Court curtseys night and day with a portière fastened to her shoulders as a train, happened to mention that Dinah had had a horrid time with the dentist that morning and she did think they might find a better man who wouldn’t hurt so much.

Bracken, who was now keeping regular office hours in Fleet Street and saw very little of his womenfolk, stared at his sister in surprise.

“Did you say Dinah was in London?” he demanded.

“Yes, didn’t you know? They’re all at St. James’s Square for the rest of the month.”

Bracken swallowed, counted ten. Easy, now, Virginia is sharp. Must keep her on the false scent of Clare as long as possible.

“I’m sorry for that kid,” he said, trying to sound off-hand. “I promised her a theatre next time she came up to Town. Don’t let me forget, will you? She seems never to have had any fun.”

“You’re quite right, she hasn’t,” agreed Virginia. “Why don’t you take her to the Savoy? They’re reviving
Yeomen
of
the
Guard
now, and the music is delicious.”

“A very good idea. Let’s see—Thursday—Friday—Friday night would do.”

“It will have to be a matinée and you’ll have to take the governess,” Virginia told him.

“Oh, good Lord, Dinah isn’t
jeune
fille
, she’s still a schoolgirl, you said so yourself! Why does she have to have a chaperone to a matinée with an elderly married man like me?”

“She’s
jeune
fille
enough not to go to the theatre with any man who is practically a stranger and hasn’t got a long white beard,” Virginia insisted. “Besides, they don’t know you’re married, do they?”

“Well, no, it hasn’t seemed to come up. I suppose I couldn’t take you along in place of the governess?”

“Why, yes, thanks for the cordial invitation, I’ll be delighted to go!”

“I’ll blow you both to luncheon at Gunter’s first and on to the matinée,” he said. “Will you tell her or—no, I’ll write a note. Do the whole thing in style.”

He wondered as he sat down to write to Dinah if he had been wise to exchange the somewhat damping Miss French for the more observant Virginia. However, he was safer than he knew, as
Virginia
was accustomed to her brother’s fondness for children, and had made up her mind anyway that he was dazzled by Clare.

Bracken read it carefully for the second time and put it away in a drawer in his desk. Well, it’s a beginning, he sighed. Would everybody think it
very
odd if I asked her to call me Bracken?
Uncle
Bracken. He shuddered. No. Better leave it alone. I
suppose I can’t do anything about the way they dress her, either. Certainly not till after they have got Clare’s Court dress paid for. And he sat revolving in his mind abortive schemes for getting Dinah to himself as he had had her that day at the Hall when she told him about the yellow bedroom.

He was grateful to Virginia for entering into the spirit of the thing as she did on Saturday. No one could be sorrier for Dinah in her astringent existence as Clare’s schoolgirl sister than Virginia, to whom Gunter’s and a matinée were no longer a novelty. Dinah was dressed in her best, he supposed, and beside Virginia’s flowered foulard from Worth and her smart theatre toque Dinah’s best was pretty bad. She was wearing a white pongee frock with a pink moiré sash. The gathered skirt came nearly to her ankles and because she was thin the bodice was made with a bertha and a high collar. Her hair was as usual tied back on top of her head and hung down her back under a wide straw hat overloaded with artificial roses.

Virginia helped him to break through Dinah’s first reserve and get her to talking about herself and her brothers. Edward was the king and could do no wrong, Oliver was the gilded hero, John was the clever one who on his visits home always gave her spending money, and Archie was the one she loved.

“He’ll look wonderful in a barrister’s wig and gown,” said
Virginia
, willing to hear more about Archie.