Henry Green: Loving, Living, Party Going

‘Suppose it was Charley,’ Kate said again.

‘Why I daresn’t even look at the man with his queer eyes. Each time I have sight of ‘em I can’t stop laughing,’ Edith said. ‘And the strange thing is I didn’t ever properly take it in that they was a different colour till the other day. Not after two years and five months here, not till just the other day,’ she added.

‘You watch out Edie that’s a sign.’

‘A sign? A sign of what, I’d like to know?’ she asked.

‘Ah now you’re asking,’ Kate said. ‘I wonder is she married or was she ever d’you reckon?’

‘No dear she’s only called Mrs like all cooks if you’re referrin’ to Mrs Welch Whatever made you say?’

‘Why nothing. But I wish he was goin’ to be older that’s all.’

‘Kate I’m getting too hot.’

‘Take off some of your clothes then silly. Come on with you I’ll help.’

‘Quiet. There’s Mrs Jack’s stockings I’ve got to go over.’

‘If you lie on your buttons I can’t undo ‘em at the back can I?’ Kate said Then she tickled Edith to make her shift.

‘Mercy stop it,’ Edith screamed. ‘Whatever are you doin’?’

‘You said you was too warm. And struggling like you are will only make you warmer. There.’

‘Kate Armstrong I thought I asked you. It tickles Why you aren’t pulling the dress off my back surely? Whatever are you at?’

But she made it easier for Kate by moving her body here and there as was required.

‘It’s only your old uniform,’ Kate said and soon Edith was lying almost naked.

‘I’ll stroke you dear if you like,’ Kate said. ‘Shut your eyes now.’

‘I ought to be going over those silk stockings.’

‘If you don’t take good care I’ll run over you like you was an old pair Edie and darn you in all sorts of places you wouldn’t think.’

They giggled in shrieks again at this then quietened down. Kate began to stroke up and down the inside of Edith’s arm from the hollow of her elbow to the wrist. Edith lay still with closed eyes. The room was dark as long weed in the lake.

‘What if it had been Charley?’ Kate asked.

‘Why d’you want to go on at me about him?’

‘But supposin’ it was Edie?’

‘Well how would you have acted?’ said Edith.

‘Me? He would never’ve had to ask me twice. Not the way I am these days.’

‘Oh Kate you are dreadful.’ But Edith’s voice was low. Kate’s stroking was beginning to make her drowse.

Then there was a real outcry from the peacocks. Kate slipped out of bed to look She saw Mrs Jack walking down the drive far beneath with Captain Davenport who was pushing his bike.

‘What is if?’ Edith asked.

‘Just those two again.’ Then Edith got up to look. The girls blocked their window, made night in the room.

‘What two?’ Edith, said her back to the darkness And answered herself. ‘Oh Mrs Jack and the Captain. But won’t the children be disappointed. I know they was counting on their mother taking them out the little loves.’

‘Well they can count on summat else then and so can she very likely,’ Kate said.

‘Now Kate you’ve no call to say such a thing.’ Edith’s voice was truly indignant They could not hear their masters.

‘It’s not fair You could get one of these,’ Davenport was saying.

‘Now Dermot,’ she replied, ‘you’ve no right to be beastly,’

‘But a bike’s the only way to get about these days,’ he said.

‘Darling I’ve already told you,’ she said.

‘She couldn’t surely object to your having a bike Violet after all.’

‘Oh I can’t go on like this behind her back,’ she announced from an expressionless face but with tears coming into her blue, blue eyes that matched the curtains in her room, ‘no I can’t Dermot any longer.’ She stopped. She stamped the ground. ‘Oh darling,’ she said, ‘I do wish I could get you out of my system.’

‘Now you’re upset,’ he began. ‘By the way,’ he went on, ‘what’s the matter with that footman you’ve got here? He asked me how the salmon trout were runnin’. I thought everyone in Old Ireland knew it was close season.’

‘Dermot you don’t mean he suspects anything?’

‘Suspect anything? My dear girl I only mentioned it to change the conversation. Good Lord I only meant he seemed a funny sort.’

‘And why d’you say you wanted to change the conversation?’ she asked.

‘Now you’re all upset.’

‘You don’t understand,’ she wailed.

‘All I meant was I’d rather have him than Eldon,’ the Captain said with bitterness. But it seemed that she was not thinking of the servants.

Charley now studied the black and red notebooks each afternoon. In the black he found Mr Eldon had written down peculiarities of those who were invited to Kinalty Castle with a note of the tips received on mentioning those peculiarities. But he did not as a rule spend long over this. There were not many people came to the Castle in wartime.

In the red Charley found Mr Eldon had kept a record of everything he drew under the petty cash account, which was presented monthly to Mrs Tennant. At one end was a copy of each account on which he had been paid. Against every item was an index number. At the other end of this red notebook the leaves were numbered and at least one whole sheet was given over entirely to copious notes on the item in question. Thus with a charge for sashcord of 7s fid in March 1938 which reappeared in September of that year in an amount of 6s 8d and did not recur until July 1939 at 8s 9d, Raunce turned up the page on sashcord to find that hardly a yard had been bought or used in these last three years and that Mr Eldon was reminding himself to charge for more but had not lived to do it.

Once he had got the hang of things and had well studied the amount of corn bought for the peacocks at certain periods, Charley turned to that part which dealt only with the Cellar. By keeping open a Cellar Diary which had also to be shown each month to Mrs Tennant and by comparing the two, he was able to refer from one to the other. Thus much that would otherwise have been obscure became plain.

For instance it was Mrs Tennant’s custom to have on tap a cask of whisky, which had to be replenished at regular intervals by means of ten-gallon jars shipped from Scotland. Not only had Mr Eldon never credited her with the empties, that was straightforward enough, but he had left whole pages of calculations on the probable loss of the volatile spirit arising from evaporation in a confined space from which the outside atmosphere was excluded. He had gone into it thoroughly, had probably been prepared for almost any query. Charley appeared to find it suggestive because he whistled. There was also an encouraging note of recent date to say that no questions had been asked for years.

After the whisky had been blended in cask for a period at a calculable loss it was Mrs Tennant’s custom to have her butler bottle it. Mr Eldon had charged her for new bottles every time. There was even a note of his about a rise in the cost of corks which he had not been able to use over again.

What this forenoon halted Charley in the study while on his weekly round rewinding clocks was a reminder in the red notebook to charge 10s 6d for a new spring to the weathervane. This was fixed on top of the tower and turned with a wind in the usual way. Where it differed from similar appliances was that Mr Tennant had had it connected to a pointer which was set to swing over a large map of the country round about elaborately painted over the mantelpiece. Raunce did not know yet how the thing worked. He stood and pondered and asked himself aloud where he could say he was going to fix the replacements if she asked him.