Augusta laid aside the sock she was knitting and folded her hands together in her lap.
“I hope you have considered well before you have spoken, Renny,” she said. “Because this is a terrible blow you have given us.”
“Why—why—I can’t believe it,” stammered Nicholas. “Why, I saw him just three weeks ago and he’d a splendid colour. His eyes were as clear and bright as a child’s.”
“He saw a doctor in town yesterday,” said Renny. “He came to my office this morning and told me about it. He was badly upset. I took him back to Meg’s. And I called up the doctor. There isn’t an atom of hope. The doctor said it was a miracle that he’d kept up so long. He’s made of good stuff, that boy, I can tell you!”
“This is too much! It’s too much!” Tears ran down Ernest’s cheeks.
“That young life,” mumbled Nicholas, as though to himself, “that young life…”
“I must go to him at once,” said Augusta.
“Why, it seems only yesterday that he was a little boy,” said Nicholas. “Pretty as a picture. And now, to think of this happening to him…” He covered his mouth with his hand to hide its trembling. Pictures of Eden’s mother, of Eden as a child, came before his eyes, and were blotted out by the picture of Eden dying.
To Ernest the shock of finding all he had held so important—his illness, his recovery, his comfort, the intimate doings of the family—overshadowed into nothingness by the terror of the approaching event was almost more than he could bear. He looked pitifully into the faces about him for comfort, but found in Nicholas’s face only a bleak dismay, in Augusta’s a sorrowful dignity, and in Renny’s a bitter resignation.
“It is a blessing,” said Augusta, “that I did not go home this winter. Now I can be of some use to the boy. And to Meggie. How did she take the news?”
Renny drew down his brows. “She took it very hard. After I had told her, she ran straight upstairs to his room and knelt down by the bed—I’d got him into bed—and they cried together. He tried to comfort her. Eden’s made of good stuff.”
“How old is he?” asked Nicholas.
“Thirty-one.”
“My God! And I’m eighty!”
“That is quite beside the point,” said Augusta.
“Auntie’s right,” said Renny. “What we’ve got to do is to face this thing together. There is no use in harrowing ourselves any more than we can help. I suppose that each one of us could find something… I’d give a good deal, for instance, if I hadn’t pushed him into working for Maurice. It’s done him harm.”
“It’s shocking,” said Augusta, “to think of a Whiteoak doing the work of a stableboy. I wonder at Maurice.”
The sound of little Adeline’s screaming came from above. Renny got up. “I think I’ll go up and tell Alayne,” he said.
Augusta took his hand and gave it a quick squeeze.
“Break it to her gently,” she said. “It will hurt her more than you think, for she worries greatly over the child and that keeps her in a strung-up state.”
“I know it does. And it’s very foolish of her.”
Nicholas was moving restlessly in his chair.
“Give me an arm, Renny,” he growled. “I’m a stiff old fellow today.”
It was with difficulty that Renny heaved him out of the chair. When he was on his feet he stood rigid for a space, as though he had lost the use of his legs, staring from under his beetling brows like an old lion at bay.
“Where are you going?” Renny asked him.
“Nowhere. Nowhere,” he answered testily. “But I can’t sit in one spot forever!” He began to walk unevenly up and down the room. When he came opposite the bow window he stopped and stared out at the draggled, unimpressive day “Thirty-one,” he muttered. “Well, I declare, it’s enough to break a man up to live to see this! It’s just enough to break a man to pieces.”
“I wish you would help me up too, Renny,” said Ernest, who had, in addition to his grief, a sense of deep personal injury. “I feel very weak. I think I must go and lie down.”
“Wait a moment,” said Renny. “I’m going to fetch you a drink.” He went into the dining room and returned with brandy and soda.
As usual the spirits went to Ernest’s head. He turned quite dizzy as he ascended the stairs, clutching the banister on one side while Renny supported him on the other. Again and again he tripped on the dangling cord of his dressing gown until Renny gathered it up and carried it.
“You’d better lie down at once,” he said, “and I’ll cover you up.”
But Ernest detached himself and, going to the radiator, put his hand on it. He said complainingly:
“It’s almost cold. There has been little or no fire all day.”
Renny’s face shadowed. He said—“You’ll be warm enough when you’re under the eiderdown.” Rather brusquely he led him to the bed and covered him up.
When he had closed the door behind him he stood motionless outside it listening. He wondered whether Alayne were in her room or above in the nursery. As he hesitated he saw Pheasant cross the passage and enter her room. For a moment her figure was darkly silhouetted against a window. She had raised her hands to touch her hair and he perceived that she was with child. A swift emotion made his heart swell—pride that another Whiteoak was on the way and, mingled with the pride, a kind of anger at the intruding of this new life when Eden’s was passing away.
Pheasant disappeared into the room. He went toward the door and asked:
“Where is Alayne?”
She came and looked out at him, her eyes dark and wistful in her pale face.
“She’s upstairs giving Adeline her tea. You’d better not go up. Alayne has trouble enough in getting her to eat properly.”
He stood for a moment rebuffed. Then he said—“I must see her.”
“Well, then, I’ll go up and stay with Adeline.”
She looked tired, he thought. Almost ill.
“What nonsense,” he said, and sprang up the stairs.
The door of the nursery was shut but his step had been heard, and Mooey flung it open, delighted with this unexpected diversion. He was eating an apple and, with a mouthful distending his cheek, he exclaimed:
“Hullo, Uncle Renny!”
His small brother, slavish imitator in all he did, came running too.
“Hullo, Uncle Wenny!” he cried.
Adeline alone remained at the children’s table. She had been perversely refusing to eat and Alayne had been painstakingly explaining to her that, when she had finished her milk, she would see the pretty picture on the bottom of her mug. Bits of bread were scattered on the floor about her and, when she had the chance, she thrust other bits into the proffered milk.
“Swing me up, please,” shouted Mooey.
“Me too, me too,” clamoured Nooky.
Little Adeline, seeing her father, kicked her heels on her high chair in joy and, snatching the mug from her mother’s hand, began greedily to drink the milk. Her eyes beamed at Renny over the rim of the mug.
“How jolly you all look here,” he said, taking up Nooky.
Alayne gave a faint smile. “I have been sitting here an hour trying to induce her to eat her tea.”
Adeline set down the empty mug. Milk and crumbs trickled down her chin. She was enraged by the sight of Nooky in her father’s arms. To show it she began to throw the cutlery to the floor. Alayne caught her hands and held them.
“She wants you to put Nooky down,” explained Mooey.
Renny set him down.
Adeline showed a double row of pearls and held out her arms. “Up, up, Dadda!”
Renny snatched her up and pressed his cheek against her damask one.
“Could you come downstairs?” he asked. “I want to talk to you.”
“I suppose so,” she said doubtfully, “but we’ll have to take Baby too. Alma is having her tea in the kitchen.”
The three descended the stairs followed by the two little boys. Alayne closed her doo
r before Mooey and Nooky had time to enter.
She could hear Pheasant intercept them in the passage, driving them back up the stairs with mingled threats and promises. “Children, you shall each have a chocolate bar if you’ll go back upstairs and be good till Alma comes. Mooey, if you climb on the banister, I’ll tell Daddy! Nooky dear, don’t lick the wallpaper! Take his hand, Mooey… If I have to go up after you, my lads, you’ll be sorry!”
Renny set his daughter on her feet. Like a small automaton she started off immediately toward the cupboard. She flung open the door, took out a hot-water bottle and returned with it to him.
“For you,” she lisped with an ingratiating smile.
Alayne wrenched it from her. “Did you ever see such a child!” she exclaimed. “She’s into mischief the instant she’s put down.” She took a sponge and wet it in the ewer. “I must wipe her face and hands before we talk. Really, it’s hopeless teaching her to eat properly.”
Adeline turned up a rosy face resignedly puckered against the sponge. Renny watched mother and child, feeling suddenly tired in body and mind. The shock, the grief he had undergone, assumed an unreal aspect. He wished he had gone away by himself for a while. He felt unequal to telling Alayne of what had happened. He dreaded her reception of the news. He had a mind not to tell her but to leave her to hear it from the old people.
She had finished washing the child and said:
“Now, go and show your clean hands.”
Adeline marched up to him, holding out two moist pink palms.
“Yes,” he approved. “Nice and clean.”
For the first time since he had come in Alayne looked at him consciously. Something in his voice had penetrated her irritability.
“What is wrong?” she asked quickly
He frowned but did not answer.
“Renny!” She came to him and put her hand on his arm.
Adeline, sensitive to a situation beyond her understanding, stood motionless staring up at them.
“I can’t tell you,” he muttered, and turned away.
“Renny, you must tell me. You’re frightening me.” She had turned pale. She looked at him pleadingly
“No, no. Someone else had better tell you. I can’t.” He stood rigid, his fount of tenderness sterile. He looked at her as a man might look at a woman who superficially resembled a woman he had loved.
“You are being very cruel,” she said. Her pride forced her to withdraw her hand from him. She was deeply hurt.
“I can’t tell you,” he repeated. “You must ask the others.”
“Very well. I shall.” She turned in one of her swift graceful movements and went from the room.
He listened to the sound of her steps descending the stair. When he heard the door of the drawing-room open and close behind her, he went into the passage and stood listening but he could distinguish no voices. He could hear nothing but Jock’s elbow knocking on the floor as he scratched himself beside the stove in the hall below.
Little Adeline had followed him and now clasped her arms about one of his legs, which appeared to her as a towering pillar. And so they stood thus united.
XVI
THE FESTIVE SEASON
RENNY, followed by his spaniels, Piers’s terrier, and Jock, the sheepdog, was prowling through the snowy winter woods in search of a Christmas tree. Among the bare-limbed oaks and maples the vigorous green of the young spruces invited him. They thrust out their boughs, tier upon tier, their central peaks seeming designed to support a gilded star. The snow lay feathery on them and still fell in a sunlit mist. The sun, silver and rayless, showed himself less grand this morning, but gently cognisant of the earth’s approach.
Renny desired a specially fine tree this Christmas, for little Adeline was now old enough to appreciate it. He had another reason too, perhaps rather a glimmering instinct in the troubled depths of his mind than a definite thought. The finer the tree the more freely might the spirit of Christmas radiate from it. He would choose a tree with boughs to hold a hundred candles.
The dogs hurried here and there snuffing and scratching at the snow-hidden burrows of rabbit and groundhog, the spaniels leaving ruffled trails behind their feathered feet, pretty young Biddy covering as much ground as the other three put together.
He chose his tree and, when he struck it the first blow with his axe, a rabbit darted from under the broad shelter of its boughs and scurried away with the dogs in pursuit.
The tree fell, shaking off its frail burden of snow, and stretched its length where its growing shadow had long been cast. The clean-cut stump it left looked insignificant to have been the support of so broad a stretch of boughs. A delicious scent rose from the bruised needles, a scent reminiscent to Renny of two-score past Christmases and their festivities.
He followed a distant clamour from the dogs and found them circled about a grizzly groundhog at bay with its back against a tree. It showed its yellow teeth, never taking its eyes from its assailants. The spaniels and Jock were obedient when whistled off, but Biddy had to be caught and cuffed and, on the way back, her hackle bristled and she whined distractedly.
Renny laid down the tree behind the carriage house, for he heard the children’s voices from the snow-covered lawn. He began to hack off a few of the lowest branches to make the contour of the tree more seemly for its high destiny. He did not hear steps in the snow but a shadow was thrown beside the prostrate tree and, looking up, he saw Finch. He had just returned that morning from his tour. One glance at his face discovered that he had heard the news about Eden.
“Hullo!” said Renny, straightening himself. “You back?”
“Yes. Just an hour ago.”
“Have a good tour?”
“Pretty good.”
Renny raised the tree and held it upright.
“What do you think of that for a Christmas tree?”
“Splendid. We haven’t had so big a one in a long time.” Finch tried to speak cheerfully, but he had a sense of shock in finding Renny preoccupied with so trivial a matter. How could he think of a Christmas tree at a time like this? Why he looked as absorbed in what he was doing as though no blackness shadowed them.
“I suppose,” observed Renny, “that you’ve done rather well financially. How much did you make?”
“I shan’t know until things are settled up.” He spoke tersely. He had dreaded meeting Renny, now he shrank from his apparent materialism. Yet he was relieved. He drew a deep breath of the tingling air. The poignant scent of the tree stabbed him. Seeing it stricken so, he thought of Eden. He broke out:
“This is terrible, Renny! They’ve been telling me. I can hardly believe it.”
“You’ll believe it all right when you see him,” replied Renny. “He’s gone down quickly in the last fortnight. He’s had haemorrhage.”
Finch wrung his fingers together. His mouth was contorted as though he were about to cry
“It’s too horrible,” he said. “I don’t see how you can bear to think about Christmas, Renny.”
Renny stood facing him, grasping the tree. He looked splendid, Finch thought bitterly, the picture of strength and vigour. Renny said:
“Well, there are the kids. There’s no use in making them miserable. And we can’t do Eden any good by mourning. I like Christmas myself, and I mean to have as good a one as possible—under the circumstances.”
Fat, red-faced Mrs. Wragge appeared from the scullery, carrying a dishpan heaped with tea towels she had been washing.
“Now then, cook!” said Renny, “just have a look at this tree! Room for presents for everyone on that, eh?”
“Lord bless you, sir, it is a grand one! It’ll tike some trimming, and I’d like nothing better than to ‘ave a ’and in it myself, if ’tweren’t that I’m so bad on me legs along o’ me varicose veins.”
“So they’re troubling you?”
“Troubling me! I’ve got three ulsters the size of pennies on me left leg and me right one is not what you’d call perfect. But I do admi
re that tree, and if I ’ad coloured paper I’d make some pretty decorations for it, which I could sitting in comfort.”
Finch left them and went toward the house. He was without coat or hat. He buttoned his jacket and shivered. The children saw him and began to shout:
“Hullo, Uncle Finch! Hullo! Hullo!”
Mooey and Patience were making snowballs. They ran nearer, holding them aloft, ready to throw. As they ran they jostled Nooky and he fell, plunging his little red hands into the snow. Adeline came last, marching steadily, the picture of infantile triumph.
“Snow—snow—snow,” she chanted.
“Why are you here?” Finch asked of Patience.
She answered—“I live here now. Uncle Eden’s at our house. Mummy’s nursing him. I’ve lost a tooth. Look!” She held up her round face and displayed a gap in the milk-white row of her teeth.
Finch rescued Nooky and dried his hands on his handkerchief. He had a tender feeling for the tiny boy.
“Love Uncle Finch?” he mumbled against his cheek.
“Ah,” replied Nooky, and clasped his neck.
Finch thought—“If only I could be like the children and not be forced to face things! They don’t see what goes on so long as they are fed and cared for. Their very hair sticks out with egotism. Their eyes are as bright as the eyes of animals. And Eden is dying… I think it might have been broken to me carefully and not blurted out by Uncle Nick, while Uncle Ernie and Alayne and Wakefield were all staring at me.”
The words had been more terrible, uttered in Nicholas’s sonorous, broken tones. Ernest had seemed a bundle of nerves, fingering his chin, biting his nails. Alayne had sat rigid, as though she did not know what it was to relax. Wakefield had appeared to be more interested in Finch’s reaction to the news than in the news itself. Augusta was not there. She had gone to stay at Vaughanlands. Pheasant had slipped out of the room soon after Finch’s arrival. She knew that the family were waiting for her to leave so that they might be free to talk…
A snowball shot past and hit Mooey on the head. Finch turned and saw Renny. At the same instant one caught him on the ear. Rage overwhelmed him. He set Nooky down and fled from the scene of romping.
The Jalna Saga – Deluxe Edition: All Sixteen Books of the Enduring Classic Series & The Biography of Mazo de la Roche Page 309