The Malady in Maderia
Page 33
“Yes. Major Hartley wanted to be sure that everything was settled quite definitely, so he made me ring from the Office.”
“Good God!” Colin bit back a remark about the Major obviously wanting to make sure of an extra hour in his cousin’s company, and merely chuckled inwardly to himself.
In fact a letter from Mrs. Hathaway arrived two or three days later, before Julia left Glentoran; after running through it herself she read it aloud to Colin.
“‘My dearest child,
It was a lovely surprise to hear your voice on the telephone this morning, and I write at once to say what a very good plan I think it is that you should do regular work for the Foreign Office, on a business basis—it will be better than just writing for your newspapers.’
“She puts Foreign Office in quotes” Julia interjected, laughing. “Isn’t she comical?”
“I tell you it doesn’t matter” Colin said. “Go on.”
Julia read on. “‘I quite agree with your doctor friend that it is probably better for the child, at this stage anyhow; provided you make it clear that if he is ill, or needs you, you must be released at once. In your case, he must come first. But nothing could be more wholesome for little Philip than to be with Edina’s children at Glentoran, one of a big, happy, nursery-ful, instead of a London child alone.
As for you, my darling child, this will give you a pleasant, useful occupation, to fill the huge gap in your life; and I think Colonel Jamieson would have wished you to do just this. I know how much he admired the work you had been doing, even before you and he became engaged; he spoke to me about it more than once.”
Julia stopped reading, and dabbed at her eyes. “That’s nice, isn’t it?”
“Yes, very, darling. I know it’s a fact, too. Is there any more?”
“Oh yes. She confirms that she’s glad to have me use the flat; she says—’It will be better for Ada and Dora to have someone to look after; be sure to make them give you everything you want. To have nothing to do is rather disintegrating, as well as boring.’ And she asks how Edina and Aunt Ellen are, of course,” Julia said, shuffling the thin airmail sheets—“ ‘Poor Ellen’ is what she says; she always calls your mother that, you know.”
“She’s quite right. That the lot?”
“No, there’s a P.S.” Julia began to gurgle a little with her slow, warm laughter. “ ’Working for the Foreign Office is of course what I shall tell Pauline, who is sure to want to know, and that nice Mr. Armitage, who asks for you every time I see him. But the Foreign Office, like our Heavenly Father’s house, has many mansions, and I feel sure that you will be put in one which will suit you.’ ”
“Good for Mrs. H.” said Colin Monro.
For
GEORGE AND THEO
(who took me up the Paúl da Serra)
This electronic edition published in 2011 by Bloomsbury Reader
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Copyright ©1969 by Ann Bridge.
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ISBN: 9781448204335
eISBN: 9781448203741
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