Ivy Compton-Burnett - Two Worlds and Their Ways

“Clemence despises the school ways,” said Verity, causing Maria to turn fond eyes on her daughter. “She has asked us here today with contempt in her heart.”

“You should not speak true words in jest,” said Esther.

“Verity is rather speaking untrue words in earnest,” said Maud. “And that she clearly should not do.”

“I wish I had taught in a girls’ school instead of a boys’,” said Oliver. “It would have done much more for me.”

“Why do you not try the experiment?” said Miss Chancellor. “You could come to us as a visiting master.”

“If I could not be at prayers, and jostle people in the passage, and hear housemaids sing on the stairs, I should not count it.”

“I am afraid you could not fulfil that programme at our school, Mr. Shelley.”

“Well, naturally, I was not thinking of any other.”

“Suppose all these were my grandchildren.” said Mr. Firebrace, looking round. “I might have had as many.”

“Then I am sure Maria would let you have them all here,” said Oliver. “But do not speak to wound me, Grandpa. I have tried to be enough for you.”

“Would you like to have me for a grandfather, my dear?” said Mr. Firebrace to Gwendolen.

“Well, I don’t much like having people for grandfathers. I have two for them, and they say I am brought up in the modern way.”

“They ought to be ashamed of themselves.”

“It is me they are ashamed of, and it is embarrassing to cause shame. I do not mind feeling it. One has to get used to that.”

“These are three good boys, Miss James,” said Oliver. “I think I remember them.”

“You remember Sturgeon,” said Bacon, “because you asked him about the potted meat.”

“I remembered the potted meat, and wondered what reminded me of it, and found it was Sturgeon. Do you remember the potted meat, Miss James?”

“No, it is the kind of thing one forgets, Mr. Shelley.”

“And you remember Holland,” said Bacon, “because you asked him about his music.”

“And I remember you. You are the boy who tends upwards. How I have proved my social memory! It is a thing one should always possess. I think I am really at the mercy of it.”

“Do you all enjoy your school life?” said Maria, to the girls.

“It is not the life that I mind, as much as the advantages,” said Gwendolen. “I do find those a great strain.”

“I enjoy it to the full, Lady Shelley, and do so consciously,” said Maud. “I realise that it will not last for ever.”

“I wish I could,” said Verity. “Some things seem never to come true. I envy Maud her simple faith.”

“Do you think I am depriving Clemence of something she ought to have?”

“I expect you are,” said Gwendolen. “People ought to have advantages. They are like plain, wholesome food, and not too much excitement. It is the duty of parents to attend to it.”

“What do you think, Miss Chancellor, if I have not asked you before? Anyhow I ask you again.”

“Well, Gwendolen and I are not often of one mind. I usually find myself correcting her views. But this time I am of her opinion, though I should not express it quite in her way.”

“Do you think I am thinking of myself and not of Clemence?”

“No one who knows you even as well as I do, could think that, Lady Shelley. Thinking of yourself has not played a large part in your life.”

“I am thinking of Clemence and of myself as well,” said Sir Roderick. “Why should not we both be considered? Answer me that, Miss Chancellor. I mean, do you not see it as a reasonable view?”

“In the matter of education the young person claims the thought, Sir Roderick. Her future is involved, as the older person’s is not.”

“But my present is involved, and there is nothing else for me. And Clemence does not want to leave her father.”

“I shall break down in the train,” said Gwendolen, “because it is all so sad.”

“Well, it is no good to think that life can always be as we would choose it, Gwendolen.”

“Talking of trains,” said Maria, rising, “I fear the moment has come to consider them. I could not face Miss Firebrace if you missed yours.”

“Does not Aunt Lesbia conduct her own party?” said Oliver.

“I am going later, Oliver,” said Lesbia, holding her eyes from this group.

“I should be reluctant to encounter her myself, Lady Shelley, at the head of a line of bestranded charges,” said Miss Chancellor. “Now we all want to thank you for quite a memorable day.”

“I have liked everything better than anything else,” said Gwendolen. “I have not considered anyone but myself, and I have not eaten a single wholesome thing.”

“Thank you so much for a day of so many pleasures,” said Maud, suggesting that other tastes had been met.

“If school life were often like this,” said Verity, “we should not long for it to be over.”

“One of its advantages is its opportunities for making friends,” said Miss Chancellor. “To-day has been an illustration of it.”

“Why do you not come to the school functions with your mother, Clemence?” said Esther, awkwardly keeping her eyes from Maria. “Then we should see you both.”

“I have a message from Miss, Laurence for you, Clemence,” said Miss Chancellor, slightly lowering her tones. “Quite a deep little message, that I hope you will carry with you into your life. She says she will think of you as rising on stepping-stones, of which one may perhaps be said to be laid by herself. Will you remember that, and let me tell her that you will?”

“Yes,” said Clemence, seeing through Miss Chancellor’s eyes a living thread spring up in the mesh of her future.

“Why, this is not a member of the party, is it?” said Sir Roderick, failing to recognise Miss Tuke in her outdoor clothes. “Why, yes, of course, the matron; that is the most important work of all. Now do not catch cold, Miss Tuke; we want you to take care of yourself as well as other people.” He adjusted Miss Tuke’s coat and fastened the collar.

“Good-bye,” said Holland, to the girls.

“Good-bye,” said the latter, smiling at him and then at each other.

“Good-bye,” said the other boys on a compliant note.

Sefton said nothing, feeling that Clemence’s brother must say more, if he spoke at all, and the girls kept their eyes from him with something of the same feeling.

Clemence and her parents stood on the steps. Oliver mounted the box of the carriage as escort. The six guests were accommodated inside, by dint of a sacrifice of Miss Tuke, which by her own account she found congenial. As the girls waited on the platform with Oliver, they made some terse remarks in distinct tones, and Miss Chancellor responded in a similar manner. When the train moved out of the station, a different note was struck.

“Which do you like better, Miss Chancellor, Sir Roderick or Lady Shelley?”

“Well, Gwendolen, comparisons are odious, and I think may really be so in the case of two people whom we can like so well. I think I should class Lady Shelley as the higher type; but Sir Roderick has his own charm; and that is a thing that goes far with many people, perhaps further with some than with me. I think we need not decide between them.

“I wondered why I liked him better,” said Gwendolen. “Of course it was because he was a lower type. That would be my reason.”

“What do you think of Sir Roderick’s way of calling Lady Shelley ‘my pretty’, Miss Chancellor? Do you think it is a fortunate one?”

“Well, Esther, as I have implied, I should not be inclined to criticise people of that quality. I think it suggests his own point of view, and does so with the ease and openness that would be expected of him, and might not be possible in anyone of another calibre. The matter is between themselves, and may be left so.”