A Family and a Fortune

by Ivy Compton-Burnett

  ‘Yes, dear, I know it all, I think,’ said Sarah, resting her eyes once more on Justine’s face. ‘I don’t like things to pass me by, without my hearing about them. We are meant to be interested in what the Almighty ordains.’

  ‘Mrs Middleton gives as much attention to the Almighty’s doings as He is supposed to give to hers,’ said Mark.

  ‘I am glad the Almighty has given half a million to Uncle,’ said Aubrey.

  ‘Half a million!’ said Dudley. ‘Now I am really upset.’

  ‘What did you think of Mrs Middleton’s account of her curiosity, Justine?’ said Clement.

  ‘Poor Mrs Middleton! We can’t call it anything else.’

  ‘She can and did,’ said Mark.

  Sarah went on to the lodge, desiring to know the Seatons’ share in the fortune and hoping that it was enough and not too much. The matter was not mentioned and her compunction at overhearing the letter vanished. She saw that she could not have managed without doing so.

  Chapter 5

  ‘Uncle is walking with Miss Sloane on the terrace,’ said Aubrey to his sister.

  ‘Well, that is a normal thing to do, little boy. I notice that Uncle is often with Miss Sloane of late. It may be that it gives Aunt Matty a chance to talk to Father.’

  ‘He has been helping her up the steps. She goes up them by herself when she is alone.’

  ‘Well, when you are older you will learn that men often do things for women which they can do for themselves. Uncle is a finished and gallant person, and there has been a late development in him along that line. He seems to be more aware of himself since he had this money. I hope it does not mean that we took him too much for granted in the old days. But the dear old days! I can’t help regretting them in a way, the days when he gave us more of himself, somehow, though he had less of other things to give. I could find it in me to wish them back. I don’t take as much pleasure in my new scope as I did in the old Uncle Dudley, who seems to have taken some course away from us of late. Well, I have taken what I can get, and I am content and grateful. And I hardly know how to put what I mean into words.’

  Blanche looked up at her daughter as if struck by something in her speech, and rose and went to the window with her work dropping from her hand.

  ‘Mother, what is it? Come back to the fire. Your cough will get worse.’

  Blanche began automatically to cough, holding her hand to her chest and looking at her daughter over it.

  ‘It is true,’ she said. ‘They are walking arm-in-arm. It is true.’

  ‘What is true? What do you mean?’ said Justine, coming to her side. ‘What is it? What are we to think?’

  ‘We are spying upon them,’ said Aubrey, his tone seeming too light for the others’ mood.

  ‘Yes, we are,’ said his sister, drawing back. ‘No, we are not. I see how it is. Uncle is choosing this method of making known to us the truth. We are to see it and grasp it. Well, we do. We will let it stand revealed. So that is what it has meant, this strange insight I have had into something that was upon us, something new. Well, we accept it in its bearing upon Uncle and ourselves.’

  ‘Dear Dudley!’ said Blanche, picking up her work.

  ‘Dear Uncle indeed, Mother! And the more he does and has for himself, the dearer. And now go back to the fire. You have grown quite pale. It cannot but be a shock. Aubrey will stay and take care of you, and I will go and do as Uncle wishes and carry the news. For we must take it that that is what his unspoken message meant.’

  ‘We must beware how we walk arm-in-arm,’ said Aubrey.

  Blanche extended a hand to her son with a smile which was absent, amused, and admonitory, and remained silent until her other sons entered, preceded by their sister.

  ‘Standing at the landing window with their eyes glued to the scene! Standing as if rooted to the spot! Uncle chose his method well. It has gone straight home.’

  ‘My Justine’s voice is her own again,’ said Blanche, looking at her sons as if in question of their feeling.

  ‘Well, Mother, I am not going to be knocked down by this. It is a thing to stand up straight under, indeed. I found the boys in a condition of daze. I was obliged to be a little bracing, though I admit that it affected me in that way at first. This is a change for Uncle, not for ourselves. It is his life that is taking a new turn, though ours will take its subordinate turn, of course, and we must remember to see it as subordinate. But dear Uncle! That he should have come to this at his age! It takes away my breath and makes my heart ache at the same time.’

  ‘Are we sure of it?’ said Mark.

  ‘Let us build no further without a foundation,’ said his brother.

  ‘Look,’ said Justine, leading the way to the window. ‘Look. Oh, look indeed! Here is something else before our eyes. What led me to the window at this moment? It is inspiring, uplifting. I wish we had seen it from the first. We should not have taken our eyes away.’

  Edgar was standing on the path, his hands on the shoulders of Maria and his brother, his eyes looking into their faces, his smile seeming to reflect theirs.

  ‘Is it not a speaking scene? Dear Father! Giving up his place in his brother’s life with generosity and courage. We see the simplicity and completeness of the sacrifice, the full and utter renunciation. It seems that we ought not to look, that the scene should be sacred from human eyes.’

  ‘So Justine stands on tiptoe for a last glimpse,’ said Aubrey, blinking.

  ‘Yes, let us move away,’ said his sister, putting his words to her own purpose. ‘Let us turn our eyes on something fitter for our sight,’ She accordingly turned hers on her mother, and saw that Blanche was weeping easily and weakly, as if she had no power to stem her tears.

  ‘Why, little Mother, it is not like you to be borne away like this. Where is that stoic strain which has put you at our head, and kept you there in spite of all indication to the contrary? Where should it be now but at Father’s service? Where is your place but at his side? Come, let me lead you to the post that will be yours.’

  Blanche went on weeping almost contentedly, rather as if her resistance had been withdrawn than as if she had any cause for tears. Aubrey looked on with an uneasy expression and Clement kept his eyes aside.

  ‘I am quite with Mother,’ said Mark. It is all I can do not to follow her example.’

  ‘Has the carriage been sent for Aunt Matty?’ said Aubrey.

  ‘Ought it to be?’ said Blanche, sitting up and using an easier tone than seemed credible. ‘We must ask Miss Sloane to stay to luncheon, and I suppose your aunt must come too. It is she who first brought her to the house. We little knew what would come of it. But not Miss Griffin, Justine dear. We had better be just a family gathering. That is what we shall be, of course, now that Miss Sloane is to be one of us.’

  ‘We will have it as you say, little Mother. I will send the message. And I commend your taste. It is well to be simply as we are. And in these days there is no risk of the promiscuousness and scantiness which did at intervals mark our board.’ Justine broke off as she recalled that her uncle’s open hand might be withdrawn.

  ‘Are we to take it as certain that Miss Sloane and Uncle are engaged?’ said Mark. ‘The evidence is powerful, but is it conclusive?’

  ‘Conclusive,’ said Justine, with a hint of a sigh. ‘Would a woman of Miss Sloane’s age and type be seen on the arm of a man to whom she stood in any other relation? Uncle is not her father or her brother, you know.’

  ‘Unfortunately not,’ said Clement. ‘That should be a certain preventive.’

  ‘Come, Clement, it is in Uncle’s life that we shall be living in these next days. He has had enough of living in ours.’

  ‘It is odd that we are surprised by it,’ said Mark.

  ‘I suppose we are,’ said Justine, with another sigh. ‘But we have had an example of how to meet it. Father has given it to us. Don’t remind me of that scene, or I shall be overset like Mother.’

  ‘You were unwise to call it up, but I admit
the proof.’

  ‘Wait one minute,’ said Justine, going to the door. ‘I will be back with confirmation or the opposite. I shall not keep you long.’

  ‘I must go and make myself fit to be seen,’ said Blanche in her ordinary tone. ‘I have been behaving quite unlike myself. I suppose it was thinking of your uncle, and his having lived so much for all of us, and now at last being about to live for himself.’

  ‘It is enough to overcome anyone,’ said Clement, when his mother had gone. ‘It puts the matter in a nutshell.’

  ‘You mean that Uncle may want his own money?’ said Mark.

  ‘It seems that he must. Nearly all the balance after the allowances are paid has gone on the house. It seemed to need all but rebuilding. Houses were not meant to last so long. Can things be broken off at this stage?’

  ‘They can at the end of it. I suppose they will have to be. Uncle had very little money of his own. There is so little in the family apart from the place. He was a poor man until he had this money. And he can only use the income; the capital is tied up until his death. And he will want to give his wife the things that go with his means. And she will expect to have them, and why should she not?’

  ‘Because it prevents Uncle from giving them to us,’ said Aubrey.

  ‘We do not grudge Uncle what is his own,’

  ‘We only grudge Miss Sloane what has been ours,’

  ‘How about your extra pocket money?’ said Clement.

  ‘I grudge it to her. And I thought she liked Father better than Uncle. She always looks at him more.’

  ‘I did not think about which she liked better,’ said Mark. ‘I thought of her as Aunt Matty’s friend.’

  ‘Perhaps she did not find Aunt Matty enough for her.’ said Aubrey. ‘I can almost understand it. Well, we shall have her for an aunt and she will be obliged to kiss Clement.’

  ‘Well, I bring confirmation,’ said Justine, entering the room in a slightly sobered manner. ‘Full and free support of what we had gathered for ourselves from the full and frank signs of it. It was not grudged or withheld for a moment. I was met by a simple and open admission such as I respected.’

  ‘And did they respect your asking for it?’ said Clement.

  ‘I think they did. They saw it as natural and necessary. We could not accept what we could not put upon a definite basis. They could not and did not look for that.’

  ‘So you did not have much of a scene?’

  ‘No - well, it was entirely to my taste. It was brief and to the point. There was a natural simplicity and depth about it. I felt that I was confronted by deep experience, by the future in the making. I stood silent before it.’

  ‘That was well.’

  ‘Are we all ready for Aunt Matty?’ said Aubrey.

  ‘Yes, we are not making any change,’ said Justine. ‘That would imply some thought of ourselves. We are meeting today in simple feeling for Uncle.’

  ‘Just wearing our hearts on our sleeves.’

  ‘Now, little boy, why are you not at your books?’

  ‘Penrose is not well. He sent a message. And directly his back was turned I betrayed his trust.’

  ‘Well, well, it is not an ordinary day. And I suppose that is the carriage. Are we never to have an experience again without Aunt Matty? Now what a mean and illogical speech! When we may owe to her Uncle’s happiness! I will be the first down to welcome her as an atonement.’

  ‘So you are not too absorbed in the new excitement to remember the old aunt. That is so sweet of all of you. And I do indeed bring you my congratulations. I feel I am rather at the bottom of this. So, Blanche, I have given you something at last. I am not to feel that I do nothing but receive. That is not always to be my lot. I am the giver this time, and I can feel it is a rare and precious gift. And I do not grudge it, even if it may mean yielding up a part of it myself. No, Dudley, it is yours and it is fully given. You and I are both people who can give. That is often true of people who accept. And you find yourself in the second position this time.’

  ‘There have to be people there or giving would be no good.’

  ‘We are all there together,’ said Blanche, who looked excited and confused. ‘Edgar’s sister will be a sister to me, as his brother has been my brother.’

  ‘We have always valued the relation,’ said Matty, taking Blanche’s hand. ‘And now we are to be three instead of two, we shall have even more to value. I must feel that I also am accepting. I shall try to feel it and not dwell upon what I relinquish.’

  ‘I do not feel that I am losing anything. I know Dudley too well.’

  ‘Well, if I feel I am giving up a little, I yield it gladly, feeling that others’ gain is more than my loss, or more important. For I have been a dependent person who has had to make demands; and now there has come a demand on me, I am glad to meet it fully. I have had my share of weakness and welcome a position where I have some of the strength.’

  ‘I need not talk about what I am accepting,’ said Maria, ‘in this house where it is known. I am giving all I have in return.’

  ‘Simple and telling, Miss Sloane, as we should have expected,’ said Justine. ‘But we did not need you to say it, and hope that it was not at any cost. And we will all give you on our side what is right and meet. And rest assured, Aunt Matty, that we are not unmindful of your sacrifice. If we seem to be a little distant today, it is because the march of affairs is carrying us with it. Let us make our little sally and return in course.’

  ‘Edgar, we must have a word from you,’ said Matty. ‘It may seem hard when you are giving up the most, but you are a person from whom we expect much.’

  ‘Surely not in that line,’ said Clement.

  ‘Well, Aunt Matty, I think it is hard,’ said Justine. ‘And you have given the reason. Well, just a word, and then we must make a move. We must eat even on the day of Uncle’s engagement. Uncle’s engagement! Who could know what the words mean to us?’

  ‘I think that will do for my speech,’ said Edgar.

  ‘Then that is enough,’ said Justine, taking his arm and setting out for the dining room.

  ‘Dudley must sit by Miss Sloane,’ said Blanche, ‘and then that is the whole duty of them both.’

  ‘Shall I say my little original word?’ said Aubrey.

  ‘Now, little boy, silence is the best kind of word from you.’

  ‘I should like to see Clement come out of himself.’

  ‘You go back into yourself and stay there.’

  ‘Does Miss Sloane know how bad notice is for Clement?’

  ‘You must forgive him, Miss Sloane; he is excited,’ said Justine, giving an excuse which both satisfied the truth and silenced her brother.

  ‘Blanche, your cough is worse,’ said Matty. ‘I believe you ought to be in bed.’

  ‘I could not be, dear, on a day like this. What would happen to them all? I am indispensable.’

  ‘You are indeed, my dear. That is what I mean.’

  ‘Mother was condemned to remaining in one room,’ said Justine, ‘but I had not the heart to carry out the sentence. Our little leader shut up alone, with the rest of us observing this celebration! My feelings baulked at it.’

  ‘It is a mistake to be all heart and no head,’ said Clement.

  ‘I am quite well,’ said his mother. ‘I am only a little worked up. I cannot sit calmly through a day like this. I was never a phlegmatic person. I feel so keenly what affects other people. I get taken right out of myself. I almost feel that I could rise up and float above you all. I don’t know when I have felt so light all through myself. I don’t believe that even your uncle feels as much lifted above his level.’

  ‘I see that people really do rejoice in others’ joy,’ said Dudley.

  ‘You have done your share of it, Uncle,’ said Justine. ‘And it is well that something else has come in time. A spell of natural selfishness will do you good. Give yourself up to it. We have schooled ourselves for the experience. It will be a salutary one. And a proportion of
your thoughts will return to us, supported by someone else’s.’

  ‘So for the time I have no uncle,’ said Aubrey.

  ‘You will have a second aunt, dear,’ said Matty. ‘Come and sit by your first one. Aunts can be a compensation, and you shall find that they can.’

  ‘Perhaps I shall be Miss Sloane’s especial nephew.’

  ‘You do not deserve it, but I have an idea that you may be,’ said Justine. ‘Naughty little boy, to have a way of being people’s favourite and knowing it! Confess now, Miss Sloane, that you already look upon him with a partial eye.’

  Maria smiled at Aubrey but was not in time to check a glance at his brothers.

  ‘Ah, now, you may not be so much the chosen person this time. You can take it to heart and retire into the background,’ said Justine, as Aubrey did both these things.

  ‘Mother, you don’t seem to know what you are doing,’ said Mark. ‘You keep on beginning to eat and forgetting and beginning again. You have not accomplished a mouthful in the last ten minutes.’

  ‘I am a little wrought up, dear. I can’t treat this as an ordinary day. Your uncle has never been engaged before.’

  ‘Never and may not be again,’ said Clement. ‘He will not spoil Mother’s appetite many times.’

  Blanche began to laugh, pursuing something with her fork and continuing her mirth as she had continued her tears, as if she had not the strength to overcome it.

  ‘Mother, you are over excited,’ said Justine. ‘You are on the point of becoming hysterical. Not that that is any great matter. It is pleasant for Uncle in a way to see how you feel yourself involved in his life. It is not your own interest that looms large to you, is it?’

  Blanche looked up as if she did not follow the words.

  ‘You are faint from want of food, Blanche,’ said Edgar. ‘You ate nothing at breakfast. You must make an effort.’

  ‘I can’t make an effort,’ said his wife, in another tone. ‘I don’t feel well enough. And I do not like being told what I am to do. I am used to doing what I choose. I am able to judge for myself.’ She thrust her plate against her glass, and sat watching the result in a sort of childish relief in having wreaked her feeling.