Ivy Compton-Burnett: The Last and the First

“Well, Hermia is to leave us,” said Sir Robert. “But she is not going far. She will come home, and we may go to her. I don’t know the customs of a school.”

“They will not want us there,” said Eliza. “We should serve no purpose for them. That is how they would see it. Hermia will come and go here as she wishes. That need not be said.”

“I am glad to feel it,” said Hermia. “It will give me a background and a better place. I am not blind to it.”

“If you are not I wonder you want the change.”

“Well, she does want it,” said Sir Robert. “She must remember it will not always be a change. Nothing can be blamed for that, though many things are.”

Eliza turned to the door, as though choosing to leave the matter, and signed to her husband to come with her. The elder daughters followed, and her own two children were alone.

“What do you think of the family scenes, Roberta? Do you feel degraded by them?”

“No, I feel I am above them. Degradation would become a normal state.”

“If only Mater could accept her life! She is really her own worst enemy. And I thought that was just a saying.”

“It is. Like everyone else she is her own best friend. But that is not to say there might not be a better.”

“Does Father understand the inner truth of things?”

“No, she is too wise, and so is he.”

“Would you like to make your escape?”

“What would be gained? It would be freedom and nothing else. Hermia’s escape is accepted and given support. And Madeline is proud of not wishing to make an escape. And I see it is a cause for pride. I could not emulate either.”

“What do you feel about Hermia’s desertion?”

“I am very much affected by it. I see that you are too. And we shall not have our mother’s sympathy.”

“Father will not have it either. I wonder how much he wants it. Does he often return to the past?”

“It seems to me that he must. If I had a past I would return to it.”

“We should be founding one for ourselves. Here is Mater to give her help. How she will improve and embitter it!”

“So you are still here,” said Eliza. “What are you discussing with such gravity?”

“What you know we are,” said Angus. “What you know we must be. What you would not believe we were not.”

“Well, what do you think of Hermia’s scheme?”

“What you do, and what Father does, and what she does herself. We think it all. We are full of thought.”

“What do you really think? That tells me nothing.”

“Oh, I thought it told you everything.”

“Do you feel that her going is my fault? I know it will be said to be.”

“It is the fault of us all. We have failed to attach her to us. The surprising thing must be said.”

“It is all that will be said, I see. Well, I suppose it is true. But we are all involved. It is not only I who have failed. What are we to say to people about it all?”

“Nothing,” said Roberta. “Silence can say more than words. It will say that we are greatly upset and embarrassed by it. And that is much more than words. We know they would not say it.”

“Suppose they did!” said Angus. “But we will not suppose it.”

“We will not. Imagining something is said to lead to acting on it. Here are Hermia and Madeline and someone with them. It is Mrs. Duff with some matter of daily life.”

“We are sorry to disturb you, Mater,” said Madeline, accepting the check imposed by their presence. “There is something that needs your attention.”

“A good many things do that. I suppose I must hear of this one.”

“Yes, a moment, if you please, my lady,” said another voice, as there appeared a middle-aged woman in undisguisedly working garb, with an inharmonious face and a responsible aspect. “If there was not a word to be said I would not say it.”

“Why, what is it, Mrs. Duff?” said Eliza, her manner smoother to her housekeeper than it often was to her family. “I hope there is nothing wrong.”

“If I have said it once, my lady, I have said it again. ‘Something will occur,’ I have said. Those have been my words.”

“But what has occurred?” said Eliza.

“I am not one to stand by as if nothing was of any account. Self may be in our minds, but need not be uppermost.”

“Well, what is in your mind now as well as self?” said Angus. “It is to your credit that there is room for it.”

“The back staircase, sir, the broken step. It has cried out for repair. ‘We have only to wait,’ I said. ‘Something must ensue.’ And it proved an apt comment.”

“You did not wait in vain,” said Roberta. “Something has ensued. I hope not a great thing. I suppose there is a human victim.”

“Well, it is Agnes, the under-housemaid, miss,” said Mrs. Duff, as if the position did amount to this. “And we must accept it as an incident.”

“But what is it? Is the girl much hurt?”

“Well, it is hard to say, miss. They make the most of it. Her account is only her own.”

“Should we send for the doctor?” said Angus.

“The message has been despatched, sir. I took it on myself. And after your usual exchange a word can ensue on Agnes. It may be all that is called for.”

“It is a tiresome thing to happen,” said Eliza.

“Well, my lady, the term may suffice.”

“I will arrange for the staircase to be mended.”

“It takes an incident, my lady, to lead to the point of preventing them. But better late than never.”

“I will come and see Agnes.”

“Well, attention is focused on her, my lady. And enough is as good as a feast. There will be the natural effect.”

“She had better rest for a few days.”

“There are light duties, my lady. And things to be done for Miss Hermia before she goes. If she will have the same needs in her new life as she has had in this one.”

“We don’t know much about the new life. We have only just heard of it.”

“Yes, my lady, it is outside your range,” said Mrs. Duff in a tone of sympathy as she withdrew. “There is a difference in spheres that you would be alive to.”

“Does Mrs. Duff listen at doors?” said Angus. “Or has she powers of her own?”

“Most of them listen,” said Eliza. “They see no harm in it.”

“What harm does it do them? I should see the good in it.”

“The village carpenter can do the repair. The appearance does not matter for the back staircase.”

“Its users are entitled to safety, and nothing further.”

“They will not mind. They come from simple homes. Mrs. Duff has done better with her opportunities than you are doing with yours, Hermia.”

“I may use them, now they have come. I have her example before me.”

“I wonder if you could say what they will be. Well, it is no good to talk about it.”

“None. If it was any good a fair amount would be done by now.”

Eliza walked out of the room as if she had not heard, and Madeline spoke in a grave tone.

“Hermia, must you go to such lengths with Mater? I don’t mean you should not say what you feel, but there is reason in everything.”

“Then what do you mean? I say just what I feel.”

“There is no need to show yourself in this light. It will leave such a sorry memory.”

“It will leave a right one. I have always said it in my heart. And as I am going I dare to voice it. And I should not have escaped without doing so. I see what my bonds have been. And I see they are barely broken.”

“We saw them being assailed and wrenched apart,” said Angus. “And we see no one else will ever break them.”

“There must be bonds in every life,” said Madeline. “There are things in all of us that prove we need them.”