The Four Graces

by D. E. Stevenson

  Copyright © 1946, 2014 by the Estate of D. E. Stevenson

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  The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.

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  Originally published in 1946. This edition is based on the second impression paperback edition published in 1974 in Great Britain by Fontana, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data is on file with the publisher.

  Contents

  Front Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Author’s Preface

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  An Excerpt from Miss Buncle’s Book

  Chapter One: Breakfast Rolls

  About the Author

  Back Cover

  To the March Hare

  with much love

  Author’s Preface

  The author has been asked whether this is a funny book or true to life and has some difficulty in answering the question, for life is a funny business altogether (both funny peculiar and funny ha-ha, as Elizabeth would say). The story covers less than a year in the life of a family, and during this comparatively short period many things happen, some serious and important, others cheerful and gay. It is summertime—a summer during the greatest and most terrible of wars—but the author felt disinclined to bring such a grave and desperate matter into a lighthearted tale; here, then, are to be found only the lighter side and the small inconveniences of Total War; the larger issues are ignored. The people in the story are imaginary and bear no resemblance whatsoever to anybody the author has met, but they are intended to represent human beings; if they fail in this, they fail in everything. The Graces are unusual, perhaps, but surely not incredible. They talk a good deal of nonsense and a certain amount of sense; they disagree violently on occasion and sometimes are extremely rude to one another, but they are also extremely loyal and show a united front to the outside world. It may be that the Graces will be criticized for levity upon important matters, or, on the other hand, for taking trifles au grand sêrieux, but the author is of the opinion that life is bearable only if it be leavened with humor, and that a spice of humor is not out of place even in the most solemn and weighty affairs. When we find Sarah taking to heart the slight misunderstanding with Miss Bodkin, and Elizabeth “laughing wild amid severest woe,” we need not conclude that the former is too anxious-minded, nor the latter too frivolous to be true to life…for life is like that (so the author has found) and all the best people have at least one bat in the belfry.

  Chapter One

  “The voice that breathed o’er Eden,

  That earliest wedding day,

  The primal marriage blessing,

  It hath not passed away.”

  Matilda Grace was humming the words to herself as she played it on the organ. She enjoyed playing the organ in her father’s church—firstly, because she knew the instrument so well (it was a very old friend and possessed the faults and failings of an artistic temperament); secondly, because making any sort of music gave her pleasure; and thirdly (why not admit it?), because it really was rather amusing to see everybody without being seen. This godlike condition was due to the fact that the organ gallery was raised and shut off from the rest of the church by a wrought iron grille; not a very convenient arrangement, perhaps, but the grille was of such fine workmanship—adorned with vine leaves and delicately curling tendrils—that nobody had the heart to demand its removal. Matilda Grace liked the grille; being naturally shy, she would have felt most uncomfortable perched up at the organ in full view of the congregation. The grille gave her confidence, she was unseen; she could almost imagine herself unheard (almost but not quite) and this was the more important because Matilda was now the official organist at St. James’s in the absence of Mr. Carruthers who was serving with His Majesty’s Forces in the Far East. Matilda had felt very nervous about this wedding; indeed this morning when she got out of bed she had suddenly decided that she could not do it…but then it had seemed even more impossible not to do it, for there was nobody else in the village who could, or would, make the attempt…and of course it was so very important that everything should go off with a swing. Now, thank goodness, her nervousness had vanished and she was managing it all quite nicely.

  In the intervals of the service Tilly could peer through the grille and see everything that was happening—could see far better than if she had been sitting with her sisters in the Vicarage pew—and this wedding was a particularly interesting one; the bridegroom was interesting to Tilly because she had known him for years, and the bride because Tilly had never seen her before. Tilly gazed down upon the happy pair, standing at the altar steps. They certainly looked happy. They looked well matched. She felt very glad about it. When Tilly was fifteen she had imagined herself in love with Archie Cobbe, for he was exactly the sort of young man to awaken a romantic attachment. He was so big and so good-looking and people said he was wild. You met him sometimes, riding about Chevis Green on a prancing horse and he always waved his cap and shouted “Hallo!” Then old Lady Chevis had died and left him Chevis Place, and Archie had taken the name of “Chevis” and settled down into a model squire. A good many young women in the neighborhood had hoped to marry Archie…and then people had begun to say he would never marry…and now, here he was at the altar with a completely strange young woman, a young woman out of the blue, of whom nobody in Chevis Green had ever heard. Jane Watt. It wasn’t a very romantic name, but Tilly thought she looked romantic. She was small—or at any rate she looked small beside Archie—she was graceful and elegant, and the beam of clear light that shone upon her from the south window showed that she had a beautiful complexion, good features, and fair curly hair, cut rather short. Not young, exactly, thought Tilly, but Archie wasn’t exactly young. In the early thirties, perhaps.

  Most brides arrange to be married in their o
wn neighborhoods but Jane Watt had defied this time-honored convention. Perhaps she had no home. It would matter tremendously to the village what sort of person she was. It would matter tremendously to the Vicar’s daughters. Tilly hoped she was capable—but not too managing, not the sort of person who would want to change everything and turn everything upside down. Perhaps she would take over the Women’s Institute…was it too much to hope that she would help with the Girl Guides?

  Mr. Grace was talking now. His clear voice rose and fell as he delivered his homily. Tilly was free to have a good look around. She looked first at the Vicarage pew and saw her sisters—Elizabeth, Sarah, and Adeline. How pretty they were! Nobody would suspect for a moment that Liz had made her own frock, or that Sal’s coat had been turned inside out by the little dressmaker in the village. It was because they wore their clothes with an air, thought Tilly, because they were unconscious of their appearance. Addie was in uniform of course. (She was the youngest Miss Grace and had joined the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force. Having just received her commission her uniform was brand-new and exceedingly smart, but she looked no nicer than the others.) Seeing her sisters like this, without being seen, was rather a startling experience. Tilly was seeing them as other people saw them, people who knew only their outsides, the front they chose to show. This was how they appeared to strangers. There was a young man sitting behind and a little to the left of the Vicarage pew (probably he had come over from the camp at Ganthorne) with a very brown face and smooth brown hair. This individual was looking at the three Miss Graces with interest and admiration—with so much interest and admiration that Tilly felt quite annoyed with him.

  The church was full. All the villagers were here, and there were quite a number of strangers as well; there were officers from the camp and people from Wandlebury and Popham Magna; people from Gostown, too, though how they had managed to get over (in wartime, without gas) Tilly could not imagine. The bridegroom’s sister lived at Ganthorne Lodge, which was quite near the camp. There she was in the front pew, Mrs. Sam Abbott was her name…and beside her were the other Abbotts, who lived in Wandlebury: Mr. and Mrs. Abbott and their small boy, Simon (he looked a perfect angel, Tilly thought). Beyond Simon was an elderly lady in an old-fashioned hat with white flowers—perhaps an aunt. These were the bridegroom’s relations, of course. On the bride’s side there seemed to be no relations at all, for Colonel Melton was sitting in the front pew with his pretty daughter beside him—Colonel Melton was in command of the camp at Ganthorne.

  But now the homily was over and Tilly remembered her duties and returned to them (feeling more than a little ashamed of herself for not having listened to a word), and there was no further opportunity for “peeping” until the end.

  “Tum, tum te tum tum tum tum, tum, tum te te tum…” The Wedding March, of course; it was all over and Tilly was letting herself go and the congregation was streaming out, first two by two and then in a flood as if a dam had burst. Tilly could hear the chatter of voices outside the church door where people were standing about in the bright spring sunshine waiting for each other. It was not far from the church to Chevis Place, and most of the guests would walk because there was no transport for them. They would walk through the woods; it was shorter that way and much more pleasant. Tilly could not make up her mind whether to go to the reception or not. She had been asked, of course, but she found crowds of people rather alarming; crowds of strangers being introduced to her and expecting her to produce small talk! But perhaps she had better go. She had no excuse for not going…it seemed silly…

  She was about to close the organ when she noticed a horrid smear of dirt upon her pale-gray skirt. (Dash! said Tilly to herself. I should have dusted the organ.) It certainly was rather a nuisance, for of course it was her best frock, but, on the other hand, this decided the matter. She would not go to the reception. She would go home and make herself a cup of tea—it would be much more comfortable. Having decided this, Tilly played on for a little, amusing herself with variations upon the Wedding March, undreamed of by its composer. Then she closed the organ, ran down the little side stair and so out into the churchyard.

  Just at that very moment somebody emerged from the main door of the church. This was unexpected because Tilly thought everyone had gone long ago. Tilly hesitated, looking back. It was a woman in a long black coat and a round hat with white flowers in it—the woman who had been sitting beside little Simon Abbott in the front pew. What was she doing here, wondered Tilly. Why hadn’t she gone on to Chevis Place with the rest of her party?

  The woman came out into the sunshine and stood there, as if dazed by the sudden brilliant light; then she sat down, suddenly, in the porch. Tilly went back, stepping lightly over the grass, and as she drew near she was horrified to find that the woman looked ill. Her eyes were shut and she was leaning back against the porch in an attitude of exhaustion.

  “Are you—are you feeling all right?” inquired Tilly anxiously.

  There was no reply.

  “Can I do anything for you?” asked Tilly in a louder voice.

  The woman looked up. “I am a little tired,” she said, adding almost immediately, “There is no need to be alarmed.”

  “A glass of water?” suggested Tilly with solicitude. She had to repeat her offer twice and now she realized that the woman was hard of hearing.

  “Please—if it is not a bother,” was the reply.

  When Tilly returned from the vestry with a glass of water she was glad to see that her patient was looking a good deal better.

  “Thank you very much,” she said, accepting it gratefully. “I think you must be Miss Grace. I saw you in church, did I not? My name is Miss Marks.”

  “Yes—no,” said Tilly loudly. “As a matter of fact, you didn’t see me, but you probably saw my sisters. We’re rather alike in a way—to people who don’t know us. You were sitting with Mrs. Abbott, weren’t you?”

  “Yes,” nodded Miss Marks. “But if you were not in church, how did you see me?”

  “I was in church. I was playing the organ.”

  “How clever of you!” exclaimed Miss Marks.

  Tilly was often praised for her ability to play the organ and such praise usually irritated her, but today she did not feel annoyed for Miss Marks was perfectly sincere.

  “It isn’t clever,” said Tilly. “The organ is easy when you get into the way of it—just at first it seems a bit complicated, of course.”

  “I never could manage it,” said Miss Marks regretfully. “And the fact is all the more deplorable because it would have been an extremely useful accomplishment.” She sipped the water and looked sadly into her past. Tilly was silent, wondering about her. A blackbird, sitting on an adjacent tombstone, burst into song.

  “My father was a Presbyterian minister,” continued Miss Marks. “We lived in Fife. It was a small parish and—but that will not interest you.”

  “It interests me a lot,” declared Tilly, smiling.

  “Ancient history,” said Miss Marks, returning the smile.

  Her smile was very sweet and lighted up her rather heavy face in the most remarkable fashion. She’s a dear, thought Tilly, and impulsively said, “Would you like to come over to the Vicarage? It isn’t far—but perhaps you feel well enough, now, to go to the reception.”

  “The Vicarage, please—if it would not trouble you. The fact is I have recently undergone an operation and, although it was by no means serious, I have not yet recovered my strength. I shall not be missed at the reception,” continued Miss Marks somewhat grimly. “Archie and I have never managed to see eye to eye.” She rose as she spoke and leaned upon her umbrella, which was long and thin and had a sharply pointed furrule. For some reason Tilly received a strong impression that the umbrella was a symbol—perhaps even a weapon—rather than a means of keeping its owner dry. This impression was intensified (as they walked across the little churchyard toward the Vicarage) by th
e manner in which Miss Marks used her umbrella to give point to her remarks. Not that her remarks needed point, for Tilly found them most intriguing.

  The worn and weathered stone that commemorated the victims of the Black Death caught her attention. “Ah!” she exclaimed. “A memorial to a very grim war!”

  “Worse than war,” agreed Tilly. “Though of course David did not think so.”

  “He chose pestilence, but only three days of it, remember,” returned Miss Marks, who was quite as well grounded as Tilly in scriptural history.

  There were forty names upon the memorial. Miss Marks read out some of them in ruminative voice. “Josiah Barefoot, Karen Toop, Johanna Element, Aaron Aleman, Sarah Bouse, John Bodkin, Reuben Trod, Hannah Search…”

  “Queer names,” said Tilly. “But there are still people with those names living in the parish. Jos Barefoot is our gardener, and our maid is called Joan Aleman—at least she was. She’s married now, and her name is Mrs. Robinson, isn’t it a pity? The butcher is Toop and the man at the garage is Element. Liz says it’s a good name for a person who has to do with electric irons.”

  Miss Marks was an unusual sort of person. She herself was pedantic in speech but she was quite undismayed by Tilly’s babble, and this was just as well, because now that Tilly had recovered from the shyness that afflicted her in the presence of strangers, she continued to babble in the most cheerful manner imaginable.

  The Vicarage was an old house with small-paned windows, pointed gables, and tall brick chimneys. It was surrounded by very tall trees so that you came upon it suddenly and if you were appreciative of Elizabethan architecture—as Miss Marks was—it was a little apt to take your breath away. Tilly gave her new friend time to recover breath and then led her through the cobbled yard, which was shaded by an elm, and so by the back door into the kitchen. (This was an unconscious tribute to her new friend’s personality. If Tilly had not liked Miss Marks she would have conducted her into the drawing room by the front entrance.) It was cool and dim in the stone-paved passage and the kitchen was a pleasant room, airy and comfortably furnished.