Henry Green - Back

“I’ll see,” Nance replied. She then called loudly up the staircase to Mrs Grant, “Here’s a Mrs Frazier come to call on dad.”

The response was immediate. Mrs Grant came to the head of the stairs. From where he was sitting Charley could see her face, which was hidden from the others. It was a terrible dark purple, altogether unlike her natural rosy cheeks. She at once began shouting, “I won’t have that woman inside my house, I won’t have her, not her I won’t,” and much else that was too vague, or allusive for Charley to follow, though he could not mistake the sightless rage. At this Mrs Frazier started off in her turn.

“This is a strange thing,” she cried from below. “There’s something wrong going on here, it’s not right, this isn’t,” but she did not make too much fuss, and, when Nancy shut the door in her face, she made off down the front garden quite quietly. Miss Whitmore ran upstairs to comfort the old lady, who was loudly sobbing by the open door to Mr Grant’s room, led her back into it, and shut the door on them both.

While Charley wondered how much had come through to the old man, the sound of Mrs Grant’s crying died away, then ceased altogether.

Summers began to fidget about his coupons. And it was almost as though she were a thought reader that Nancy said, when presently she came back into the living room, “I don’t forget all the time, you know,” as she handed over a whole unused book of them.

“I say, you shouldn’t,” he began, when she cut in with,

“Don’t worry your head.” She spoke simply and without affectation. “He won’t need very many more of those, I’m afraid,” she said.

When he went down to Redham the next Saturday evening, Nancy opened the door, as she had done the last time.

“He’s much better,” she said in a low voice. “He’s resting.”

Then, as she took over Charley’s hat, she added,

“See who’s here.” He looked down to see the bloated cat, which raised its tail and terribly glared at him.

“Yes, my own sweet puss,” she went on, “who’s as good as gold, that doesn’t go out after nasty toms, never even tries to get back to London, does she?”

Mrs Grant came into the hall.

“Why Charley,” she said, “this is so thoughtful of you.” Then she, in her turn, turned it off onto the cat. “You know I’ve never properly cared about them,” she went on, “but this beauty is altogether different.”

“Had her kittens yet?” Charley enquired.

Both women laughed.

“How could you ask such a thing?” Miss Whitmore exclaimed. “Isn’t that just like a man, mother? Why you’ve only to glance at the poor sweet to tell, haven’t you, my great, big, Panzer darling? She’s going to have quads, we’ve settled on that, haven’t we, dear?” she announced to Mrs Grant, although there had been no word between them on it. “Two tabbies and two gingers. Wouldn’t that be wonderful?” Then she realized what she had done, risked a glance at Charley, and at the old lady. But it was plain they were not making this a red herring.

“Come along,” Mrs Grant waved him into the living room, “sit down, do, and make yourself at home.”

“I wouldn’t wish to interrupt …” he brought out.

“Why, he’s resting,” the older woman explained. “He’s got a bell right by his hand, on the good side, that he can thump away at when he needs. He’s getting ever so expert, isn’t he, Nancy?”

“Half the time he bangs the thing just to see us run,” Miss Whitmore said.

“Oh he’s very good, so patient really,” Mrs Grant protested, and smiled.

“Of course he is. He’s a marvel,” Miss Whitmore agreed. At that instant the bell did feebly jangle and Nance rushed out of the room, up the stairs.

“She’s been wonderful, Charley, I shan’t ever be able to forget to my dying day,” Mrs Grant told him. “More like the darling I lost than I could imagine.”

“There it is,” Summers said.

To his surprise she took this up.

“I could never have dreamed,” she elaborated. “It’s as if Rose had come back.”

“There is a resemblance,” Charley commented, without conviction.

“I’ll never allow that,” she said, in a wondering sort of voice. “But, well, the picture a mother carries is very different, I dare say. No, it’s the loving kindness. Why that child’s so good she hides a real heart of gold. And she’s had her own dark times, too.”

“Yes,” Charley agreed, happy and free.

“There’s something she wanted me to mention, now she’s not here for the moment,” Mrs Grant said.

“Yes?” he prompted, beginning to feel excited.

“It’s about Mr Middlewitch,” the older woman went on. Charley felt let down. “I don’t say I think the world of that man myself, but after all we’re all here to help one another, aren’t we? And now I’ve come to realize what Nancy’s nature is, I can’t believe she’d be mistaken in anyone. She’s so sensitive that she simply learns father’s wants before he has time to realize what they may be. I know. I’ve seen it,” she insisted.

He sat quiet, waiting, and drank in this praise.

“No, it’s only that Mr Middlewitch has lost his job. Some little disagreement at the office, nothing unpleasant I’m sure. He’s told her. Now, if you could put a word in for him, where you work, I’m certain it would make all the difference. You see the control’s speaking of sending him up north. Because he explained to me there’s a young lady he’s interested in. Just now it would break his heart to be moved out of London, with things as they are between the two of them.”

“Who’s the girl?” Charley asked, beginning to dread.

“Well, dear, as father always would say, a confidence is a confidence, it’s sacred, and it’s not for us to break it. Why, I do declare,” she then cried out, delighted, “I believe I can see what’s troubling you. He’s nothing to her. You needn’t think of that again. He even mentioned the name, as a matter of fact. She’s a young lady out in South London. Now, Charley Barley, whatever made you such a goose?”

“Me?” he said. “I didn’t say a word.” He was horrified at what he seemed to have let out.

“You young people,” she commented, peaceably. “So you will, won’t you? That’s settled then.”

He could not be sure what she meant, did not dare ask. She saw the look on his face, and giggled.

“Don’t mind me,” she begged. “I might be your own mother, when all’s said and done. Why not put a word in for him, which is all I’m suggesting? Every day I open the papers I see how short-handed everyone is, and I don’t imagine where you work can be any different. He’s a boy father helped when he first came to London, son of an old business associate I believe. I’m sure Gerald would be ever so grateful if you could. It was for father’s sake Nance asked me to mention him.”

“Can’t rush things. I’ll have to look about me,” Charley promised, intending to do no such thing.

“I can set my mind at rest on that, then,” Mrs Grant announced. “But I won’t breathe a word if you’d rather I didn’t.”

“And how have you been keeping, mother?”

“There, that’s like the old days once more, your calling me mother again,” she said. “Dear, dear, it does bring it all back. You two children sitting in here as bold as brass, just like you were grown up, seeming to dare father and me to come in and disturb you. Many’s the laugh he and I had over it, bless him. But Rose was so wilful, wasn’t she? Of course, it’s true she was an only child. No one could say a thing to her, could they?”

He no longer wanted to hear about Rose. To change the subject he tried to bring things back to health.