Ivy Compton-Burnett - Men and Wives

“A clergyman is a clown, Miss Kate, and a deal less respectable a clown than one on the stage. That clown amuses people as a life work, and what more useful work could there be? A parson amuses people because he is a man among women. A man among men and a woman among women are natural. No one who thinks that women do not like being with women has any knowledge of life; and no one does think that a man does not like being with men. And a woman among men has pathos and human interest. But a man among women is simply — oh yes, I know I am this — the thread that goes through their lives. I would much rather be an ordinary man than a thread. A thread is such a good word for me.”

“Especially as you are going to involve yourself in sewing!” cried Geraldine from a distance.

“I wish some woman would find a proper use for me as a thread. I might be used to sew up a gap in things for her. Do you think Griselda would ever use me, Miss Kate? Lady Haslam wanted a stronger thread for her, and one that had not been used before.”

“It has to be a strong thread to be used twice,” said Kate in a hearty tone.

Geraldine, who had been looking at Bellamy and her sister in surprise and almost consternation at their intimate colloquy, rose to her feet and broke the meeting.

Rachel met Godfrey in the hall.

“Well, did you make a success of the working party?”

“No,” said Rachel.

“What went wrong?” said Godfrey.

“My personality,” said Rachel. “It went to pieces. Agatha is next to Harriet after all. It is worse than that. She is instead of Harriet.”

“Well, My Dear boy, welcome, welcome,” said Godfrey, entering his dining-room six months after his wife had left him. “The oftener we see you the more welcome you are.”

“Then I must be very welcome by now,” said Bellamy. “But not to Buttermere. He looked at me with a stony eye because he had to lay another place.”

“Your place was laid as usual, sir,” said Buttermere.

“Buttermere, you will soon be sorry for ungenerous words. When I have carried my princess to the parsonage, and we are happy and hospitable at our own board, you will find yourself sentimental that our places know us no more. Make the most of a Chapter that will soon be closed.”

“It is needless to go further when everything has simply to be done, sir.”

“We will, indeed, Ernest,” said Godfrey, putting himself into a gap he was prepared to fill. “It has been one of the happiest Chapters in our lives. I would not ask for a happier, if I could be offered it. Of course there is always the one thing wanting. But we won’t keep on dwelling on it. There seems to be something grasping, almost a thought ungenerous in harping on our right to have things all our own way. We will leave that alone for a little while. But it has interrupted my welcome of you, and I wouldn’t have had it fail for the world. I am as pleased to see you as any of my other children.”

“Whose presence has been staled by custom,” said Griselda.

“Ah, now, Grisel! What will you do with this girl, Ernest?” said Godfrey.

“Nothing. She will do everything with me.”

“Ah, I’ll be bound she will. They do everything with us at first. And afterwards of course, even more until the end.”

“Well, it is the beginning we have before us as yet,” said Bellamy.

“Yes, yes, we all get the beginning,” said Godfrey. “Nothing that comes later can cheat us out of that.”

“Is it permitted to ask how Griselda’s mother is?” said Bellamy.

“My dear boy, I am grateful to answer that question, when it is asked in that spirit, and not as if I were somehow to blame for her being ill. I should be the last person, shouldn’t I, to wish it? Some people give me an actual sense of discomfort for going on my way doing my best, instead of sitting about in sackcloth, in other words for following my wife’s teaching instead of disregarding it. I am not saying which is the better course. I won’t throw up the one I am taking. It is second best, I suppose they think.”

“Well, Ernest is not among them. You may answer him,” said Griselda.

“Yes, well, it is all as it must be, Ernest. I am not allowed to see my wife at the moment. Dufferin has forbidden it, and I am to take that as meaning she is better. That may be the meaning; other things would encourage me more. But I have put my best foot foremost, and looked people in the face, and please God I will continue as I have begun.”

“I trust not alone for very much longer.”

“I trust not, Ernest; but I don’t see my way very clear before me. I have no great conviction to help me forward. Sometimes it is borne in upon me that it is just the beginning. Well, one thing is, that the certainty will creep on us unawares, and we shall be broken to the burden. But these are depressing words. We will give you no more of them. We will pass to brighter things. I find I can support this entertainment in aid of your church, settle the financial side of it, I mean.”

“What a lovely meaning!” said Bellamy. “It is so uplifting not to be told that charity begins at home, as if that were a reason for its not continuing as far as the local church!”

“Yes, I find myself in a position to do so. I have seen Spong, and he makes it clear that that is the case. I should say, he lets it out because he can’t help it, because I can see it for myself. I am getting an eye for business matters. However, we won’t speak about Spong; he will be here for luncheon in a moment. He rather looked at me, old Spong, when I said I was to finance a play in support of a church. It seemed to him a contradiction in terms. The church part he swallowed pretty well; it was the play that stuck in his gullet. ‘Ah, well, Spong,’ I said, ‘anything done for a good purpose is done for that end.’ I quoted a bit out of your theories to him. And he said not another word. I think he saw my mind was made up. So things are shaping as you fancied them, Ernest?”

“All my life is perfect,” said Bellamy. “Perhaps it is partly because I have a patron. I believe that parsons have always needed patrons.”

“Oh well, my boy, patron! I don’t know anything about that. You are to be my son, you know.”

“Indeed I do know. All my life has been leading up to it. It is just the right finish to Griselda that she has parents worthy of her.”

“Yes, yes, my boy, you think of both her parents, don’t you?”

“It seems that there is to be a reversal of the old order of things, Sir Godfrey,” said Dominic, coming smiling to the table, “and that it is no longer to be a question of children being worthy of their parents, but of parents adopting that relation to their children.”

“Oh well, Spong, the old order passeth,” said Godfrey, condoning general change.

“Ah, I am of those, Sir Godfrey, who view with a sentimental regret the passing of things established.”

“Camilla, my dear!” said Godfrey. “We had given you up. How are you?”

“A thought shaken for the moment. Having brought a message from my lately intended husband to my now intended husband, I find myself confronted by my former husband as a fellow guest! And by our common legal adviser, who knows what would be called the unsavoury details of the case. I am sure I may depend upon Mr. Spong, and that the court is closed. Matthew, Antony is summoned to a patient and will not be working at his house to-day. He sent the message to Mother’s door, as he knew I was coming here. He puts me to any use he can, now I am not to serve my former purpose. Ernest, it is utterly congenial to me to meet you as a brother. We exercise quite a choice of ways of becoming one flesh. Matthew, when you glower at me like that, I cease to be your future wife. I am your slave, I am a bondswoman, a squaw.”