Ivy Compton-Burnett - The Mighty and Their Fall

“It is not for me,” said Ninian. “I would not have credited such foolishness. It is too kind to put up with it. I hope it does not mean it is familiar.”

“Well, I did not feel much pride in them then, Mr. Middleton. It is not their usual level. Egbert and Lavinia know when to be silent. That is a great thing to have learnt.”

“You talk as if people learn everything from you,” said Hengist.

“Well, everything is a large order, Hengist.”

“What other sources of information have you had?” said Ninian.

“A good many things come to people of themselves.”

“And those sometimes need correcting,” said Miss Starkie, shaking her head.

“Hengist’s destiny is school,” said Ninian. “He will get his correction there. He will find a change.”

“Ah, it will be deflating, Mr. Middleton. Sometimes I think too much so. The balance may be better kept elsewhere. It is only my own view, of course.”

“It is mine,” said Egbert. “It is the only civilised one.”

“And mine,” said Hugo “I have never joined the herd.”

“Girls do as well as they need at home,” said Selina.

“So they will always be here,” said Hengist. “It is better to be a girl.”

“Oh, always is a long word,” said Miss Starkie, in an easy tone that covered relief. “As far as we need look forward.”

“I wish I could be here too. I would rather learn from a woman.”

“Well, I can understand that, Hengist. And I think the view has thought in it.”

“It has,” said Ninian. “We see the line it takes. I hope he will remember his debt to you.”

“People are always taught, when they are young,” said Leah.

“Ah, the person who lays the foundation, Mr. Middleton! It is not there that the credit accrues. It is the finishing part that earns it, the part that shows.”

“Do you think you are a conceited person?” said Hengist.

“Well, I may have a healthy share of self-esteem. We are none of us the worse for it.”

“I think some people might be.”

“Why is it healthy?” said Leah.

“Oh, I think you must wait to understand that.”

“I hope your patience will meet success,” said Ninian. “I have no great hope of it.”

“It rests with me to see that it does. We must look into the distance,” said Miss Starkie, suggesting the scope of her effort. “It can only come with time. We will not push too far forward. We must not wish our lives away. And school cannot have the fine edge of family life. But we must not complain. It does not claim to have it.”

“It is the other side that seems to make the claims,” said Selina.

“Well, well, we know our aims, Mrs. Middleton, and see no reason to hide them. And if we sometimes fall short of them, well, we are the better for having them. And now we must start for our walk. Is Lavinia coming with us?”

“No, I am staying indoors. Father is at home today.”

“Are we to have your escort, Egbert?”

“No, four charges might be too much for you.”

Miss Starkie walked after her pupils, upright and conscious after her self-exposure.

“I will be the first to speak,” said Hugo, “and will spare the rest of you. Few of us dare to voice aspirations. And I see the reason.”

“We can hardly criticise these,” said Ninian.

“Or any others,” said Lavinia. “Aspirations are always high. I hope something will come of them.”

“My children hardly have what I had myself. It is the last thing I wished. But the land does poorly, and giving it my life does not better it. There is little help for my girls or hope for Hengist. I must face the truth and so must they.”

“I have taken no harm, Father. I have been able to grow into myself. It has been best both for you and me.”

“It could be put in another way. As you grow up, the wrong becomes greater. We should think how to amend it.”

“I have no tenderness for my age. I have become unfitted for it. And I can be old or young at will. It is what the house requires of me.”

“You should always be young. You have been forced out of your time. In your childhood it was a small thing. It becomes a grave one now.”

“We can’t retrace our steps. And I have always seen my way. Miss Starkie is outside and will second me.”

“Lavinia’s way was straight and firm from the first, Mr. Middleton. I can hardly look back without a smile at the sturdy figure forging onwards,” said Miss Starkie, right in her mistrust of herself. “Speaking metaphorically, of course.”

“I am glad it is not literally,” said Hugo. “I could not bear to think of anyone as sturdy, least of all Lavinia. Of course there are people who might be described in that way. But I should not refer to it any more than to any other disability. I should seem to be unconscious of it.”

“How much sense do you think you are talking?” said Selina.

“Now that is not fair, Mrs. Middleton,” said Miss Starkie. “To sit there in your easy-chair, appearing to be half-asleep — appearing to be absent-minded, and to be alert and critical all the time! We had better set out before we betray ourselves further.”

She left the house with her pupils, and Selina moved to the window to observe their progress. Agnes walked in front with Miss Starkie, and Hengist and Leah together behind, indeed arm-in-arm, though this was not their habit. Selina beckoned to her son and returned to her seat. Ninian succeeded her at the window and in a moment leaned out of it.

Something depended from Miss Starkie’s skirts, of a nature to unravel when pulled, and her pupils were putting a foot on it in turn, and receding as its length increased.

“Miss Starkie, you have suffered a mischance! Some part of your dress is disintegrating. The mischief should be arrested.”

Miss Starkie turned, paused and stooped, and set off in another direction.

“Oh, a bush will serve me, Mr. Middleton. I can manage in a moment. Why did you not tell me, children?”

“For a reason that is clear,” said Hugo. “Some chances do not come again. Sometimes I regret my childhood. But only for light reasons.”

“I regret it for deeper ones,” said Selina. “Children are always with us. Now one of mine has left me.”

“Well, I must go to my work,” said Ninian. “I shall soon have Egbert’s help. His playtime is nearly over.”

“We are too used to the idea of work to realise its meaning,” said Hugo. “I had early suspicions of it, and dared to act on them.”

“What a comment on life,” said Lavinia, “that to be out of work is held to be sad and wrong!”

“Satan lies in wait for idle hands,” said Selina.

“But only Satan, Grandma. And he is hardly seen as a model of behaviour.”

“My playtime, Father!” said Egbert. “What a description of an Oxford life! And I am sure I am a person who has never played.”

“I believe I am too,” said Lavinia, “or have come to be.”

“It may be true of you both. It comes of the motherless household. It is strange that I have a mother, and you have not.”

“I do not fill the place,” said Selina. “I have left it empty. I am not a woman who loves her grandchildren as her own. They are further down the scale.”

“The two youngest almost too far,” said Ninian. “It is Miss Starkie’s task to force them up. Few people could undertake it. She seems to be bringing them back. It has begun to rain.”

Selina went into the hall, fixed her eyes on her two youngest grandchildren and spoke in deep tones.

“Hengist and Leah, come in where we can see you. And look me in the face. Can you say you did nothing wrong when you were out today?”

There was a pause.

“We could,” said Hengist. “But it would not be true.”