Ivy Compton-Burnett - A Family and a Fortune

‘You have no idea where she may have gone?’

‘None as she has not come here. I had a hope that she might have. I am so used to finding the house a refuge myself — Matty gave her niece another smile — ‘that I did not think of her being perhaps struck by it differently. Especially as she has spent her time in it in another way.’

‘We are all very grateful to her. I am very hurt that she has not come here.’

‘Yes, dear? She has hurt us all.’

‘Has she any home?’ said Mark.

‘Her home has been with me. I know of no other.’

‘She has no relations she could go to?’

‘She has relations, no doubt. But, you see, to them she would be, as you say, a relation. It is to you that she is the person outside the family.’

‘She has no friends in the neighbourhood?’

‘She has those to whom you may have introduced her. She can have no others.’

‘Aunt Matty, I know that you think we might have introduced you to more people,’ said Justine. ‘But the truth is that when the house was running at full pressure, with all of us at home and you and Grandpa coming in, Mother could manage no more. It worked out that your coming here to meet our friends meant that you could not meet them, it implied nothing more and I am sure you know it, and Maria may manage better; but as concerns the past that is the truth. It seemed to be a rankling spot, and so I have let in a little fresh air upon it.’

‘No, dear, that is not the line on which my thoughts were running,’ said Matty, lifting her eyes and resting them in gentle appraisement on her niece. ‘They were on the death of my father, as they hardly could not be. And friends and houses and Miss Griffin all came second to it. Indeed only Miss Griffin came in at all.’

‘We have no clue either to my brother’s whereabouts,’ said Edgar, taking the chance of opening his mind. ‘It is a strange fashion, this silent disappearance. We must try to get on the tracks of them both. Was Miss Griffin prepared for going? It is very cold.’

‘As far as I know, she went out of the garden without hat or coat or anything. The action was sudden and unpremeditated and she will probably be back at any time. She may be back now, in which case my father’s death will have been a great shock to her.’

‘Did she wander in the garden without hat or coat in this weather?’ said Clement.

‘Take care; Aunt Matty must have driven her out,’ said Mark. ‘And she did not wait to be called back, but went on her own way. And if she freezes or starves or dies of exposure, and it seems that she must do all those things, she will be better off than she has been.’

‘Had she money, Aunt Matty?’ said Justine.

‘I do not know — yes, dear, more than I have at the moment.’

‘And had she it with her?’

‘I can only know that when you find out and tell me. That thought has been in my own mind from the first.’

‘She cannot have gone far,’ said Maria, who had listened in silence. ‘We could send someone to drive about the country and look for her. We had better do it at once.’

‘May I interpose, ma’am?’ said Jellamy.

‘Yes, if you have anything to tell us.’

‘Mr Dudley and Miss Griffin were perceived to be walking together last night, ma’am.’

‘Oh, they were together. That is a good thing. How did you hear?’

‘The information came through, ma’am.”

‘You are quite sure?’

‘The authority is reliable, ma’am.’

‘Well, that is the worst off our minds about both,’ said Justine. ‘We need not worry about anyone who is in Uncle’s charge, or about anyone in Miss Griffin’s. Each is safe with the other. They both have someone to think of before themselves, and that will suit both of them.’

‘It is a mercy that their paths crossed,’ said Mark ‘What would have happened to Miss Griffin if they had not?’

‘She would have gone home, dear,’ said Matty, with a change in her eyes.

‘Well, they did cross, so we need not think about it,’ said Justine.

‘We can hardly help doing that,’ said Maria. ‘It was the purest chance that your uncle passed at the time.’

‘There are inns and other shelters,’ said Edgar, glancing at the window.’

‘For people who have money with them. She seems to have gone out quite unprepared.’

‘I told you that the action was unpremeditated,’ said Matty. ‘But they would have trusted her as she is known to live with me.’

‘People might not trust a person who was leaving the house where she was employed.’

‘Maria, it is a great feat of courage,’ whispered Justine, ‘and I honour you for it. But is it wise? And is it not an occasion when indulgence must be extended?’

‘Your aunt had not lost her father when she turned Miss Griffin out of doors.’

‘Oh, you have your own touch of severity,’ said Justine, taking a step backwards and using a voice that could be heard. ‘We shall have to beware. It may be a salutary threat hanging over us.’

‘Well, what of Dudley?’ said Matty. ‘Are we to hear any more about him, now that Miss Griffin is disposed of? Have you any room for him in your minds? Do you take as much interest in his comings and goings? Did he go out prepared for the weather? Had he any money? Did you have notice of his going? Tell me it all, as I have told you. We must not deal differently with each other.’

‘We will tell you, Aunt Matty. We admit that he went suddenly,’ said Justine. ‘And that we do not know the manner or the wherefore of his going.’

‘Mr Dudley was sufficiently equipped for the weather, ma’am,’ said Jellamy. ‘Miss Griffin was perceived to be wearing his coat when they were observed together.’

‘Was she? Then he was no longer in that happy state,’ said Matty, going into laughter rather as if at Jellamy and his interruption than at Dudley’s plight. ‘We can keep our anxiety to him. Miss Griffin no longer requires it. What about scattering some coats and hats about the road, for people to pick up who have fared forth without them? It is really a funny story. Somebody from the large house and somebody from the small, running away into the weather without a word or a look behind! Well, people must strike their own little attitudes; I suppose we none of us are above it; but I cannot imagine myself choosing to posture quite like that. And if I had had to pick out two people to scamper off into the snow with one coat and hat between them, I should not have pitched on Dudley and Miss Griffin.’ Matty bent her head and seemed to try to control her mirth. ‘It was a good thing that the coat belonged to Dudley, if they were to wear it in turns. He could not have got into hers.’

No one joined in the laughter, and Matty wiped her eyes and continued it alone, and then stopped short and adjusted her skirt as if suddenly struck by something amiss.

‘I have heard better jokes,’ said Mark. ‘The weather is icy cold and one coat is not enough for two.’

‘I wonder who was wearing the hat,’ said his aunt in a high voice which seemed to herald further laughter.

‘Miss Griffin was perceived to be wearing a shawl about her head, ma’am.’

‘Oh, what a picture! It sounds like a gipsy tableau. I wonder if they intended it like that. I wonder if they had a caravan hidden away somewhere. I know that Miss Griffin has plenty of hats in her cupboard. Some of them I have given her myself. What can be the reason of this sudden masquerade?’

‘Perhaps she had none in the garden,’ said Clement.

‘We know they have not a caravan,’ said Mark. ‘And it is hard to see how they are to manage without one.’

‘There is the inn,’ said his father, in a sharp tone.

‘Of course there is, Edgar,’ said Matty in a different manner. ‘They all seem to think that the scene is staged on a desert island. But the scene itself! I can’t help thinking of it. I shall have many a little private laugh over it.’