Ivy Compton-Burnett - Elders and Betters

“Do you need telling?” said Anna, looking her father in the eyes, as if the subject held no reserves for her. “How many men have I been thrown with lately? How many have I known since we have been here?”

“I can only think of your cousin.”

“Right again,” said Anna.

“Terence!” said several voices.

“Well, there is no objection to the marriage of cousins, is there?”

“There is from our point of view,” said Claribel. “The first marriage of the family spoilt by its not bringing any change! Cannot you wait until you can offer us a proper stranger?”

“Well, I did not have to help you so much, did I?”

“Does Terence want to marry you?” said Reuben.

“Well, I have his word for it.”

“You have that, clear and certain?” said Benjamin.

His daughter laughed.

“Would you say that I am the sort of woman to think that every man who shows me a normal friendship, wants to make me the offer of his hand and heart? Do I strike you in that way, Father? People may not take much interest in their families, but they can hardly be quite so blind.”

“Well, what a piece of news!” said Jenney, in an excited tone. “The first we have had for a long time. The first of a happy kind, I mean.”

“One of the sort was due,” said Bernard. “We are grateful to Anna for breaking the trend of events. It was time that it was checked.”

“The first reasonably pleasant words I have heard,” said his sister.

“When was the fateful question put?” said Esmond.

“I gave the fateful answer yesterday. The question had run the course of all such questions, or many of them, I suppose.”

“You kept Terence in suspense? Did that add to your value?”

“Well, you sounded as if you thought that was desirable.”

“You did decide to give the affirmative answer?” said Claribel, as if she would hardly have expected this.

“Anna has done nothing, if she has not made that clear,” said Bernard.

“I did not expect this particular line of incredulity,” said his sister.

“Oh, I only wanted a little feminine gossip,” said Claribel.

“It is not quite the kind of thing one gossips about. Well, how do you all like the thought of your life without me?”

Reuben looked at his sister in a startled manner.

“I must hear more of it, my daughter,” said Benjamin.

“You have heard all I have to tell. It is not such a strange piece of news. I suppose nothing is more common than two young people’s marrying, though one is inclined to get wrought-up over it, when it involves oneself. I suppose it is the commonest thing after birth and death.”

“But, like them, it is not usually passed over,” said Bernard.

“Oh, I do not believe in having one’s little material for excitement wrested away from one,” said Claribel. “It may be trivial and commonplace and anything you please, but it is the interest we have at the moment, and I am going to make the most of it. I cannot only give my attention to the important things of life. I have my own sympathy with all the little human chances and changes.”

“This is an important thing to me,” said Benjamin, looking at his daughter. “What are Terence’s prospects of supporting a wife?”

“I should not think he has any,” said Anna as if the thought occurred to her for the first time. “Such things are not much in his line, are they? But I think we ought not to be short of money. I had not given much thought to that side of things.”

“And has Terence given none at all?”

“I don’t know,” said Anna, lightly shaking her head. “I daresay.”

“I should think that can hardly be said,” said Esmond.

“Well, I hope it can’t,” said his sister. “It will be a great help if he has a turn for such matters. I can do with a little support in them. I don’t want to be always turning to Father, and I don’t suppose Terence would want it for me either.”

“Did Terence go on his knees?” said Reuben.

Claribel laughed and awaited Anna’s answer with raised brows.

“He did what corresponded to it for him, I suppose,” said Anna, reaching towards a book. “That moment must bring out a man in a new light. Terence did things in his own way, as you would expect. But he made his meaning clear and served his purpose.”

“He is some years younger than you,” said Benjamin.

“Oh, yes, yes,” said Anna with easy impatience. “He is marrying me for my money, and I am old enough to be his aunt, and he is not prepared to work for me, and all the rest. But there is something about him that I happen to want; and no doubt he would say the same of me. You do not suppose that we have not considered our own future.”

“You said you had not,” said Esmond.

“People may accept certain things and regret them afterwards,” said Benjamin.

“Then they must be silly people,” said his daughter. “We regret them now. Terence wishes from his heart that he had more to offer me; that he was the right age, and had normal prospects, and all of it. But such things can’t be altered, and he does not want to miss the main thing, because he cannot have the secondary ones.”

“So you have made up your mind?” said Benjamin.

“Well, at the age you think so advanced, I ought to be capable of it. And I suppose you were in the same mind as Terence in your time?”

“My position was different.”

“Yes, of course, Mother was younger than you, and you had a profession and private means, and everything in your favour. But you were not Terence, and so I hardly think I should have wanted you so much. And Mother was not me, and so I daresay Terence would have been of similar mind. And we may have our own share of good fortune. Indeed my having money of my own does strike me like that.” Anna spokeas if the thought had just occurred to her.

“Well, from my heart I wish for your happiness, my daughter.”

“But you are afraid that you hope for the impossible. Well, time will show.”

“It is time that holds the threat, when the woman is older than the man,” said Esmond.

“Oh, I am not quite a hundred. And Terence is an ageless sort of person. I declare I wish I had brought him to this interview, and had not tried to steer the course by myself.”

“Women are expected to face the disagreeables of life,” said Claribel, not specifying who held the view in this case.

“Well, I have hopes that I shall be an exception. Terence is a person to take that sort of thing off me. He was coming to-day, but family duties intervened. And the ordeal is not as much as all that. You are not such awe-inspiring people. You are just simple and callow and critical, as people in your stage must be. I may be an aged crone, but to every state its advantages.”

“Father can hardly be described in the terms you use,” said Esmond.

“Well, men never grow up,” said Anna. “I am glad that Terence was in a sense born old.”

“I suppose he shares your taste for maturity?”

“Yes, I think he does. He says he never felt a boy, even when he was one.”

“What is he now?” said Claribel, opening her eyes.

“A boy to you, of course,” said Anna, in full cordiality.

A faint sound of laughter came from Benjamin.

“Will he go on teaching me?” said Reuben.

“I should think he will,” said Anna, “if we can find a house in the neighbourhood. He will be glad to turn a penny of his own.”

“But he will have all your money to live on.”

“That will be little enough for a separate household.”

“What of your schemes for benefiting your family?” said Esmond.

“They must fade away,” said Anna with rueful frankness.

“My plans for being the godmother-sister were shortlived. I make no claim to put them before my own life. They came up against it and went by the board. That is the truth.”