Ivy Compton-Burnett - A Family and a Fortune

‘I will bring up the rear,’ said Aubrey, ‘and feast my eyes on Justine.’

‘And Maria and Aunt Matty can have the hour together for which I suspect Aunt Matty has been pining.’

‘I shall enjoy it, dear, but so I hope will Maria. It is a thing which depends on us both.’

‘Yes, have it your own way. Enjoy it together. Forget us; agree that we are in the crude and callow stage; anything; I am quite beyond caring. Oh, I am so happy that I could clap my hands; I could leap into the air.’ Justine proved her powers. ‘I am in such a mood that it would be idle to attempt to contain myself.’

Aubrey gave a grin towards his stepmother, and opening the door for his sister, followed her with his head erect.

‘Quite a finished little man,’ said Matty. ‘You should not have much trouble with him. In what order do they come in your affections? They are already there, I can see.’

‘I hardly know the order. There will be one, of course. I think perhaps Mark comes first; then Justine; then Aubrey and then Clement. I hardly feel that I know Clement yet.’

‘I think I would put them in the same order,’ said Matty, who had lost her tenseness. ‘Except that perhaps I would put Mark after Justine. Yes, I think that my niece comes first, even though we try to quarrel with each other. We never succeed and that says a great deal.’

‘Why do you make the effort? It seems to be a rather constant one.’

‘Ah, you are catching the note of my nephews! You are to be a true Gaveston after all. You are not going to be left behind.’ Matty broke off as a noise came from the stairs.

Dudley had mounted the first flight, and coming to the second, had shaken off his nephew’s hand and gone on alone. His limbs gave under him and he fell forward. Edgar sprang after him; Justine gave a cry; Mark turned back and raised his voice; Aubrey ran up the last stairs; Clement broke from his room and hurried to the scene. Dudley was helped to his nephew’s bed, hardly the worse. Edgar stood by him, looking as if his defence had broken before this last onset. Clement made a movement to cover something on his desk, stumbled and made a clutch at the desk, and sent a mass of gold coins in a stream to the floor.

Justine started and glanced at them; Aubrey paused for a longer moment and stared at his brother; Mark left the bed as he saw that no harm was done, and stood looking from the floor to the desk. Clement touched the coins with his foot, kicked a cloth towards them, and thrust his hands into his pockets.

‘How nice you all looked!’ said Dudley, who had seen what they all saw. ‘Just as you did when I was ill.’

‘And we felt like it for a minute,’ said Justine, turning from her uncle as she spoke.

Edgar sat down and looked at his son, as if he ought to have some feeling over for him.

‘Father looks paler than Uncle,’ said Mark.

‘But anyone can see that I am the one who has been ill,’ said Dudley.

Maria appeared at the door with Jellamy behind, and Clement had the eyes of the household turned on the secret corner of his life.

‘Is Dudley hurt?’ said Maria. ‘Was it Dudley who fell?’

‘Yes, it was me. It was a silly thing to do. You will get quite tired of all my disturbances and think less of them. It never does to wear out people’s feelings.’

‘Is that money, Clement?’ said Justine.

‘If it is not, I will leave you to guess what it is.’

‘Have you been saving?’

‘I have been putting by something to spend on my house. You know that I am going to have one, and that I do not spend what I have.’

‘Why do you keep it in that form?’

‘It is like that at the moment. Or some of it is. I have to have some in hand for various things. And I don’t care about having interest up to the last moment.’

‘Clement is a miser,’ said Aubrey, who accepted this account and did not know how the words struck other ears.

‘Well, are you going to leave me?’ said his brother, who was strolling up and down, enabled by the smallness of the space to turn round often and hide his face.

‘Or are you going to settle in my room? Perhaps you forget that it is mine.’

‘You can allow Uncle time to recover,’ said Mark.

‘He does not need to do so, as you know,’

‘And the rest of us to get our breath,’

‘I admit that I took that away from you,’ said Clement, with a laugh.

‘Clement, that is no good,’ said Justine. ‘It is not a pretty thing that we have seen, and you will not make it better by showing us anything else that is ugly.’

‘I have no wish to show you anything. I don’t know why you think so. It is your own idea to pry about in my room. I don’t know what you keep in yours,’ Clement turned to Aubrey, who was touching things on the table. ‘Stop fingering what is not your own and get out of the room. Or I will throw you out.’

‘Don’t do that,’ said Dudley. ‘If anyone else has a fall, I shall not be the centre of all eyes. And if you won’t share things with Aubrey, why should I?’

‘Is anyone of any use to Uncle? And ought not Maria to be in the drawing-room, giving tea to Aunt Matty?’

‘The king is in his counting house, counting out his money;

The queen is in the parlour, eating bread and honey.’

quoted Aubrey in the door.

Clement took one step to the door and kicked it to its latch, indifferent to what he kicked with it. It opened smoothly in a moment.

‘Miss Seaton wished to be told if any harm was done, ma’am,’ said Jellamy.

‘None is done in here,’ said Mark. ‘I don’t know about outside.’

‘Master Aubrey has knocked his head, sir,’

‘Oh, I had better go,’ said Justine.

‘We will come with you,’ said Maria. ‘Clement did not ask us in here.’

Edgar followed his wife, and Dudley got off the bed and strolled to the desk.

‘I am glad that you value your money, Clement. I like you to take care of what I gave you. And it shows how well you behaved when I asked for it back. I can’t think of that moment without a sense of discomfort. We all have a little of the feeling at times. To know all is to forgive all, but we can’t let people know all, of course. Does it give you a sense of satisfaction to have money in that; form?’

‘I don’t know. Some of it happened to be like that.’

‘I wish you would tell me. Because, if it does, I will have some of mine in it.’

‘I suppose some people sent it in that form, and I put it all together. It will not remain so for long.’

‘Of course I am not asking for your confidence.’

‘I hope you have not killed Aubrey, Clement,’ said Mark.

‘Justine would have come back and said so if I had. She would think it worthy of mention.’

‘I should not like Aubrey to die,’ said Dudley. ‘I only nearly died, and it would give him the immediate advantage.’

‘You must come to your room, Uncle,’ said Mark. ‘It was my duty to see you there.’

‘I am not going there,’ said Dudley on the landing. ‘I am going downstairs again. I have lost my desire for rest. I can’t be shut away from family life; it offers too much. To think that I have lived it for so long without even suspecting its nature! I have been quite satisfied by it too; I have had no yearning after anything further. Matty is going and the gossip can have its way. It will be a beautiful family talk, mean and worried and full of sorrow and spite and excitement. I cannot be asked to miss it in my weak state. I should only fret.’

‘You won’t find it too much?’

‘I feel it will be exactly what I need somehow.’

Matty waved her hand to Dudley and continued her way through the hall, as if taking no advantage of his return.