Ivy Compton-Burnett - The Mighty and Their Fall

The silence was broken by Selina.

“So that is what it is. We might have known. We shall soon feel we did know. So you are what you would naturally be. That is what we should have known. My son, may it all go well with you.”

“I knew my mother would wish it. And I want to hear that my children do. When a thing goes without saying we like the better to hear it said.”

“We can only say it does go without saying, Father,” said Egbert.

“He speaks for us all, Father,” said Lavinia. “And that does the same.”

“Thank you, my dear ones,” said Ninian, just turning his eyes on his daughter. “I looked to hear it, and am happier for having heard.”

“If you are happy, Father, we have what we want,” said Agnes.

“You sound as if you are excited,” said Hengist.

“She may be,” said Ninian. “And so may you all. It is a great change that is coming.”

“I am not excited,” said Leah. “We don’t know what the difference will be.”

“Well, you will soon know,” said Selina. “It will not be kept from you.”

“Do you wish me well, Hugo?” said Ninian.

“I have no thought over from myself. Does she know about me?”

“Know that you exist?”

“Yes, there is nothing else to be known.”

“I have told her about us all.”

“A mother-in-law and five stepchildren cannot be helped. But it must seem to her that I could have been avoided.”

“Fifty-four years have made their claim,” said Ninian.

“To justify my being here? Well, it might take as long. I am fortunate if it takes no longer.”

“Will Father still like Lavinia as much?” said Hengist.

“I shall like her better,” said Ninian, at once. “I shall see her as the first of my little daughters, instead of the one I have forced out of due time. My reproach will be taken away.”

“What will be taken from me, Father?” said Lavinia, in a light tone. “Perhaps not a reproach.”

“What has been taken is your childhood. It is I who have taken it. It is for me to give it back, before it is too late.”

“It is too late,” said Hengist. “She can’t be a child now.”

“She can to her father. In a sense she has always been. Another relation has been imposed on the real one. And it is the second that goes deep.”

“Perhaps that is why it was harder to see it,” said Hugo.

“Lavinia and I will be more equal,” said Agnes. “There are only six years between us.”

“I have forgotten it,” said her father. “I must remember it now.”

“You know what you ask of Lavinia, Father?” said Egbert. “We wish you all that is good. We accept many of your words. But we must say one of our own.”

“Oh, all’s fair in love and war,” said Ninian, in a light, almost ruthless manner, admitting a stress on the word, love . “She is a person who would know that.”

“Would a child know it?” said his daughter.

“I felt you would. I have found I can depend on you. You have wanted me to find it.”

“She is to have her wish,” said Hugo.

“Will Grandma still live with us?” said Agnes. “Or will she have another house?”

“Perhaps the new wife will not want her,” said Hengist.

“Or want you either,” said Selina. “Or want any of us. We are not what she wants.”

“But a father has to keep his children.” said Leah.

“Well, I want all of you,” said Ninian. “And she is ready to share you with me. And I will share her with you, if you do not take too much of her.”

“Why should we want to share her?” said Leah. “When we haven’t seen her, and she doesn’t want any of us.”

“No, you have not seen her,” said Ninian, as if he need say no more.

“Now I am interrupting an occasion?” said Miss Starkie. “The voices warned me that the schoolroom was deserted. And I had no wish to reign in solitary state.”

“It is an occasion indeed,” said Ninian. “Or I hope I may say it is. I have been breaking a piece of news to them, the news of my coming marriage. Now that it is broken, I am sure you will congratulate me.”

“There is no need to say it, Mr. Middleton. And I would congratulate someone else, if convention allowed it. As it is, I do so in my heart. Well, children, you have had great news. You will find it hard to settle down.”

“If you think we can’t, I suppose we shan’t have to,” said Leah. “What difference will it make?”

“None, if I can help it. And I will not countenance much. We know our standard.”

“She doesn’t want there to be any change,” said Leah to Hengist.

“Not for the worse, certainly,” said Miss Starkie. “It would be an odd wish. If you can make one for the better, I will be the first to welcome it.”

“Suppose the — the new wife wants to teach us herself?” said Leah.

“Well, I see no reason to suppose it,” said Miss Starkie, laughing. “I think you take an optimistic view of yourselves and your requirements.”

“It would save expense for herself and Father,” said Hengist. “She will be his wife and will share everything.”

“Well, I don’t think you can expect her to share you . It will be my task to keep you from encroaching on her.”

“Father said she would share all of us with him,” said Leah.

“Oh, in that sense,” said Miss Starkie, and dismissed the subject.

“Will she be over Grandma, or will Grandma be over her?” said Hengist.

“What a question to ask! They will not see things in that way.”

“She will manage the house, and Grandma will advise her,” said Ninian. “So both the ideas are true.”

“Will she be glad to have children?” said Leah.

“Stepchildren,” said Lavinia.

“Will they make her more important?”

“Well, it would hardly be thought. They will show that her husband has had a life with someone else.”

“Do you mean with Mother or with you?” said Hengist.

“I meant with Mother. But it has been with both.”

“Well, now it will be with neither,” said Ninian, with his ruthless note. “It cannot be with the one, and should not have been with the other. It is a thing that need not be said.”

“And so need not have been,” said Hugo.

“And people do not think in that way,” said Miss Starkie to her pupils.

“How do they think?” said Lavinia. “Is there another way?”

“You must prevent this child from being too mature and cynical, Miss Starkie,” said Ninian, with a hand on his daughter’s shoulder. “It is my fault that she talks beyond her years, without the knowledge to justify it. It is for you to put it right, as you have put right so much.”

“Is it not for you, Ninian?” said Hugo. “It is you who have made the mistake and want it rectified.”

“That is my reason for leaving it in better hands than mine.”

“Lavinia has learnt so many things easily and well, Mr. Middleton, that I am sure she will learn this. If she has been drawn too soon into the grown-up world, it will do her no harm to realise it. And perhaps she can have a foot in both worlds. That would be a fair compromise. We must try to see the matter through her eyes.”

“Well I must go,” said Ninian. “I need not say to whom. I am happy in not having to go far. But I shall be happier when we can both stay.”

The silence after he had gone was ended by Miss Starkie.

“Well, we have had a break in our day. We must go and do better with the rest. I think Lavinia and Egbert will be staying with their grandmother.”

“So she knows I should not be alone,” said Selina. “And she knows people have a right to what is theirs. What use is wisdom in the wrong place?”

“Is she too good to be a governess?” said Agnes, lingering behind.