Ivy Compton-Burnett - The Mighty and Their Fall

“Well, we rejected everything and were left with nothing.”

“Well, if that is a satisfactory conclusion!” said Miss Starkie, forcing a brisk tone.

Selina entered the room, and at once looked from face to face.

“We have news for you, Mother,” said Ninian. “I believe you feel we have. It is at once near to you and far from your thoughts. You may have some inkling of it. You are a hard person to surprise.”

“Do not lead up to it, my son. Let me have it in a word. You must know it.”

“This uncle and niece are no longer to be what they are. What they are to be I hesitate to say. It may be a shock to you”

“If they want to be married, they can’t be,” said Selina, in a shriller tone. “I have seen it coming and thought my eyes deceived me. I have heard and disbelieved my ears. It cannot be. It is a wrong, unnatural thing.”

“It is natural, Grandma,” said Egbert, “for a man and a woman in the same home to be attracted to each other.”

“No, that happens when they are in different homes. The attraction of closeness is the result of it. It dies in the open. When they were in it, they would find it dead.”

“It will live and grow in me,” said Hugo.

“You should not have let it arise. You knew all there was against it. Look at it as others will. Marrying a virtual niece, when she inherits a fortune? It will tell one tale.”

“To us it tells another. We are only concerned with our own.”

“You are holding your eyes from the future. You would live in the atmosphere, breathe the air, hear the voices you always had. And would feel you always would. All your life as well as hers. All her young life as well as yours. Ninian, can you not prevent it? You are her father.”

“I could only use words, as you have. And you see the use of those. Miss Starkie did the same, with the same result, that is with none.”

“And she represents the many. They will all say the one thing. We shall always hear it.”

“Try not to be troubled, Mother. They are hardly doing wrong. They are unwise and are likely to rue it. And we can hardly see Hugo as we did. But we must accept what we cannot alter. And do all in our power to help them.”

“Help them? To the harm of each other’s lives? To the undoing of your daughter’s. And what help is in your power? You are a shadow on the scene. You appear to choose the part. We must suppose it is yours.”

“It is mine. I am nothing. I can do and say no more.”

“Well, I can,” said Selina. “I can both do and say it. I can betray my husband and reveal the truth. I will tell you a thing you were never to know, that no one has ever known. Hugo is your father’s son. That is why he was adopted. That is why he has something of his own. That is how he came to be one of us.”

There was a pause.

“Tell us the whole,” said Ninian.

“It happened before you remember. When Hugo was in his infancy. Your father determined to adopt him, and would not be denied. He said he was the orphan son of a friend, and would say no more. I did not question him; I had no need; I accepted what could not be helped. I had no doubt that the boy was his. I have none now. His feeling for him proved it, both then and as time went by. We ostensibly took him as a companion for Ninian, when we thought we might not have another child. It was a natural thing to do, and aroused no question.”

“Hugo is Lavinia’s uncle?” said Ninian.

“Her uncle by half-blood. Your half-brother. Your father’s son.”

“They say that truth is best,” said Egbert. “I wonder what anything else would be.”

“Truth is needed here,” said Ninian. “We are forced to welcome it. But it was wise to keep the secret. We must all keep it now.”

“It has been kept through your lives. It was kept even from me. It was neither right nor wrong, but it was best.”

“It is the truth, Grandma?” said Lavinia. “You feel it is?”

“As far as I can tell it, my child. I wish at this moment that it was not.”

“Mother,” said Hugo, “you have done well by me.”

“I feared to do ill. I would not fail my husband or your helplessness. In doing what we must, we come to do more. I came to care for you. And I have had return.”

“It is strange news,” said Ninian. “It ends the threat that was on us. It must do other things. We shall get used to the knowledge.”

“I shall not,” said Hugo. “To me there is no change. And to Lavinia there will be none.”

“That is not a thing to say,” said Ninian.

“It is what we both of us feel.”

“In a way we are closer,” said Lavinia.

“You are,” said her father, gravely. “The natural tie is strong. Your feeling for your uncle had a truer basis than you knew. You can recognise it between yourselves.”

“We can marry and live as brother and sister,” said Hugo. “As our real relation is not known.”

“What next?” said Ninian sharply. “First an uncle, then a suitor, now a brother! What will your next thought be?”

“I will tell you. We can live as what we have been, as adopted uncle and niece. The difference in years, that looms so large, can help us there.”

“But why make the change, as you have not made it before? Oh, of course, there is the money.”

“Yes, of course. No one can live on nothing. Ransom knew it, when he set Lavinia free.”

There was a pause before Ninian spoke again.

“She may use her freedom. The choice is hers. What do you say, my daughter?”

“We might do it, Father. We could for a time. But it might not be for always. It would not be the same for Hugo. There might be a different end.”

“Say Uncle Hugo , as you always have, like the brave girl you are,” said Ninian.

“Well, Uncle Hugo . What difference does it make? If we lived as uncle and niece, I should have to say it.”

There was a silence.

“So it has made the difference,” said Hugo.

“And it makes another,” said Ninian, bending towards his daughter. “It restores our partnership, our power to help the future. It gives back much.”

“And from you it takes nothing,” said Teresa.

There was again a silence.

“Hugo, I may welcome you as a brother?” said Ninian, holding out his hand. “You will let me be glad of it in itself. I almost wish Ransom had known.”

“He knew,” said Selina. “I had to share the knowledge. I could not carry it alone. After your father died, he knew. Until then I felt I did share it.”

“He kept the secret,” said Ninian. “It was a thing he could do. So it was the deserter who had your confidence.”

“Not because he deserted. I could have loved him better, and told him more.”

“I do not grudge him his place. I hope I grudge nothing to anyone. I am sometimes misjudged.”

“So are many of us. So was he.”

“Are we sure of the truth?” said Lavinia. “Sure beyond doubt? Is there any real proof?”

“Your grandfather’s words. That the boy had a claim he could neither forget nor reveal. It meant what it did.”

“Have you my birth certificate?” said Hugo.

“I had nothing to do with your birth. Your mother died at the time. I have never pursued the events. It would have ended in nothing. Or rather in the one thing.”

“I will take every step to find out the truth. To prove or disprove your theory. There may be some hope.”

“There is none. The truth is what it must be. It can be nothing else.”

“So Uncle Hugo is really our uncle,” said Egbert. “It seems to make a difference, to be a strange, deep thing.”

“We are not to know it,” said Selina.

“Or speak of it again,” said Ninian. “So already that has to be said. There are ears everywhere.”