Ivy Compton-Burnett - The Mighty and Their Fall

“And if you appear as one, our mother will question you,” said Ransom.

“Any more than my daughter was rendered one,” continued Ninian, without looking at him. “I remain her father. You remain my son and my brothers.”

“I feel I have stood a trial,” murmured Hugo. “I don’t know how.”

The three men left the house, and Ransom turned to his niece.

“I have my own word to say. Remember it, when I am dead. What I leave you will be yours in your own hands. In anyone else’s it will be his and used as his own. Do not be wise too late.”

“So it is over,” said Ninian. “The too brief, but we may feel brave life. We do not know its efforts and trials. My brother did not exhibit himself. We owe him our future, the firmness of our roots in the soil. We take it as a gift from him. In a sense he will not die.”

“In a poor sense,” said Teresa, “as he will not be alive.”

“In the sense he chose. He will share our life, as we live it. What he leaves us remains his own. We shall see it as his.”

“We see it as Lavinia’s. As she sees it, and he saw it.”

“Yes, she represents him. We feel it is her place. I take what he gives me, at her hands. He chose her as the intermediary, to add something to the gift. She has the generous part.”

“She would have, if it was what you suggest. She will have the one her uncle gave her.”

“I take it from both him and her. I see it as a twofold charge. I shall answer to them both.”

“And to all of us, Father, if you mean what you say,” said Egbert. “But she will have what is hers.”

“The power to pass my brother’s gift from his hand to mine. It is a cause for pride, a thing to carry with her, an addition to her life.”

“And light enough to carry. She would hardly feel the weight.”

“I shall not carry it,” said Lavinia, in a light tone, not looking at her father. “It is not what Uncle Ransom wished. He did not mean what Father says.”

“We know what he meant,” said Ninian. “What did he say when he returned to us? What were his first words?”

“Is it second thoughts that are recommended?” said Hugo.

“I am thinking of his last ones, Father. He left all he had to me. You said it was your wish, and held to it when he questioned it. Did your words mean nothing?”

“My brother understood me. We understood each other.”

“What did you understand?” said Egbert. “He could have left the money to you.”

“The money?” said Ninian, in a dreamy tone. “Yes, that was the form it took. I was to take his gift in the form he chose, in the way he chose. And I do so willingly.”

“There is no reason to be unwilling, if your words are true.”

Ninian gave a faint smile, and stood as if aloof, with his hand on his chin.

“The money is mine, Father,” said Lavinia. “I am not afraid of the word. None of us is afraid of what it means. I shall do as my uncle said.”

“Has my daughter changed?” said Ninian.

“She has learned that she is not only your daughter. Perhaps it is a change.”

“It is still my marriage?” said Ninian, stooping to look into her face.

“That is in the past. This is the future. And it was never your marriage. It was the difference in yourself. You ask me if I have changed. There was no need to ask it of you. Uncle Ransom said we had something of each other.”

“Uncle Ransom said? So that is his place now. So inheritance can do as much as this.”

“We do see its forces working,” murmured his son.

“To what did the desire for it lead you, Father? I am forced to remind you of it.”

“Forced?” said Ninian, gently. “Nothing would force me to recall any similar thing in your life. We have nothing of each other there.”

“Well, we will leave the matter. There is nothing more to be said.”

“The one thing. The word of the future. It is true that it hardly needs saying. That we will work together for the common good, using what is ours to further it. If it is transferred to my name, it will ease your burden. We must not forget your youth. It should be a happy partnership.”

“I should once have thought so. But the change has come. And there may be other changes. I may not always be with you. Our lives may go apart.”

“If you marry, a portion will be assigned to you. You should be distinguished from the others. Your uncle would wish it, and we should follow his wish.”

“We know his last decision. That I should have the whole. And I have a legal right to it.”

“Legal? I was thinking of the moral one,” said Ninian, so incidentally as hardly to utter the words.

“I am going to marry, Father. The money may not be too much. I have no knowledge of such things. I am marrying a poor man.”

“She is,” said Hugo, moving forward. “And a man who is nothing else, except old and over-familiar. I hope it is true that frankness is disarming.”

There was a pause before Ninian spoke.

“You do not mean you want to marry my daughter?”

“What did you think I meant?”

“I could not believe my ears. I do not now.”

“We have found it hard to believe ours. But ears seldom really deceive.”

“Lavinia, you have been carried away. The sense of having money has upset you. You did not think of the effect on other people. This is not the way to use it. I beg you to think again.”

“I have thought, Father. This is what we both have wished. And now we can have it.”

“If Hugo — if your uncle was worthy of the name of a man, you could have had it before.”

“Well, of course I am not that, Ninian.”

“It is an unthinkable thing. It is unnatural and unfit. There can only be one opinion.”

“I never like things that are described as natural. And we should not be the slaves of opinion.”

“We can be the slaves of things that I will not state.”

“I am sure you are wise, Ninian. Then I will not either.”

“What is your feeling for Lavinia herself, apart from them.”

“You must know there are things that are never put into words.”

“As you have said, there is nothing in your favour. Your best years are behind. You are old compared with her. You might be her father.”

“No, Ninian, I could not take your place.”

“And you are almost a relation. She sees you as an uncle.”

“No, not now, Father,” said Lavinia. “I have not since I was a child.”

“And how long is that? And how long has this been threatening? Since the promise of your uncle’s money?”

“Long before with me,” said Hugo. “As soon as it could be with her. And now it can be realised.”

“You would not work for your wife, like other men?”

“Ninian, I am what I am. That is what you have against me. If I were not, you would have nothing. And if I were as other men, Lavinia might not have accepted me.”

“You talk as if recognising your failings altered them.”

“Well, you might feel you had never liked me so well.”

“So it is not a serious thing. I thought you could not mean it.”

“It is serious, Father,” said Lavinia. “You should not find it so strange. When you resolved to marry yourself, you meant it.”

“Marriage means a loss,” said Teresa. “In this case it is a double one. Are we to make it greater than it is?”

“It will be nice to be missed,” said Hugo. “Though it seems it ought not to be. And I never know how people know about it.”

“Will you live far away?” said Egbert.

“Near enough to be in touch with you. Lavinia made it a condition. I am in her power, as I have really always been.”

“We can see the change,” said Ninian. “Lavinia, think while there is time. You are in early youth. You have met few men. You must wait for the chances of your life. And your uncle should know it.”