David nodded.
‘Alfred was going into the army. Father arranged it all. Alfred, the eldest, was to go into some cavalry regiment, Harry was to go into the works, so was I. George was to enter politics.’
‘And it didn’t work out like that?’
David shook his head.
‘Harry broke all that up! He was always frightfully wild. Got into debt—and all sorts of other troubles. Finally he went off one day with several hundred pounds that didn’t belong to him, leaving a note behind him saying an office stool didn’t suit him and he was going to see the world.’
‘And you never heard any more of him?’
‘Oh, yes, we did!’ David laughed. ‘We heard quite often! He was always cabling for money from all over the world. He usually got it too!’
‘And Alfred?’
‘Father made him chuck up the army and come back and go into the works.’
‘Did he mind?’
‘Very much to begin with. He hated it. But Father could always twist Alfred round his little finger. He’s absolutely under Father’s thumb still, I believe.’
‘And you—escaped!’ said Hilda.
‘Yes. I went to London and studied painting. Father told me plainly that if I went off on a fool’s errand like that I’d get a small allowance from him during his lifetime and nothing when he died. I said I didn’t care. He called me a young fool, and that was that! I’ve never seen him since.’
Hilda said gently:
‘And you haven’t regretted it?’
‘No, indeed. I realize I shan’t ever get anywhere with my art. I shall never be a great artist—but we’re happy enough in this cottage—we’ve got everything we want—all the essentials. And if I die, well, my life’s insured for you.’
He paused and then said:
‘And now—this!’
He struck the letter with his open hand.
‘I am sorry your father ever wrote that letter, if it upsets you so much,’ said Hilda.
David went on as though he had not heard her.
‘Asking me to bring my wife for Christmas, expressing a hope that we may be all together for Christmas; a united family! What can it mean?’
Hilda said:
‘Need it mean anything more than it says?’
He looked at her questioningly.
‘I mean,’ she said, smiling, ‘that your father is growing old. He’s beginning to feel sentimental about family ties. That does happen, you know.’
‘I suppose it does,’ said David slowly.
‘He’s an old man and he’s lonely.’
He gave her a quick look.
‘You want me to go, don’t you, Hilda?’
She said slowly:
‘It seems a pity—not to answer an appeal. I’m old-fashioned, I dare say, but why not have peace and goodwill at Christmas time?’
‘After all I’ve told you?’
‘I know, dear, I know. But all that’s in the past. It’s all done and finished with.’
‘Not for me.’
‘No, because you won’t let it die. You keep the past alive in your own mind.’
‘I can’t forget.’
‘You won’t forget—that’s what you mean, David.’
His mouth set in a firm line.
‘We’re like that, we Lees. We remember things for years—brood about them, keep memory green.’
Hilda said with a touch of impatience:
‘Is that anything to be proud of? I do not think so!’
He looked thoughtfully at her, a touch of reserve in his manner.
He said: ‘You don’t attach much value to loyalty, then—loyalty to a memory?’
Hilda said:
‘I believe the present matters—not the past! The past must go. If we seek to keep the past alive, we end, I think, by distorting it. We see it in exaggerated terms—a false perspective.’
‘I can remember every word and every incident of those days perfectly,’ said David passionately.
‘Yes, but you shouldn’t, my dear! It isn’t natural to do so! You’re applying the judgment of a boy to those days instead of looking back on them with the more temperate outlook of a man.’
‘What difference would that make?’ demanded David.
Hilda hesitated. She was aware of unwisdom in going on, and yet there were things she badly wanted to say.
‘I think,’ she said, ‘that you’re seeing your father as a bogy! Probably, if you were to see him now, you would realize that he was only a very ordinary man; a man, perhaps, whose passions ran away with him, a man whose life was far from blameless, but nevertheless merely a man—not a kind of inhuman monster!’
‘You don’t understand! His treatment of my mother—’
Hilda said gravely:
‘There is a certain kind of meekness—of submission— brings out the worst in a man—whereas that same man, faced by spirit and determination, might be a different creature!’
‘So you say it was her fault—’
Hilda interrupted him.
‘No, of course I don’t! I’ve no doubt your father treated your mother very badly indeed, but marriage is an extraordinary thing—and I doubt if any outsider—even a child of the marriage—has the right to judge. Besides, all this resentment on your part now cannot help your mother. It is all gone—it is behind you! What is left now is an old man, in feeble health, asking his son to come home for Christmas.’
‘And you want me to go?’
Hilda hesitated, then she suddenly made up her mind. ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘I do. I want you to go and lay the bogy once and for all.’
V
George Lee, M.P. for Westeringham, was a somewhat corpulent gentleman of forty-one. His eyes were pale blue and slightly prominent with a suspicious expression, he had a heavy jowl, and a slow pedantic utterance.
He said now in a weighty manner:
‘I have told you, Magdalene, that I think it my duty to go.’
His wife shrugged her shoulders impatiently.
She was a slender creature, a platinum blonde with plucked eyebrows and a smooth egg-like face. It could, on occasions, look quite blank and devoid of any expression whatever. She was looking like that now.
‘Darling,’ she said, ‘it will be perfectly grim, I am sure of it.’
‘Moreover,’ said George Lee, and his face lit up as an attractive idea occurred to him, ‘it will enable us to save considerably. Christmas is always an expensive time. We can put the servants on board wages.’
‘Oh, well!’ said Magdalene. ‘After all, Christmas is pretty grim anywhere!’
‘I suppose,’ said George, pursuing his own line of thought, ‘they will expect to have a Christmas dinner? A nice piece of beef, perhaps, instead of a turkey.’
‘Who?’ The servants? Oh, George, don’t fuss so. You’re always worrying about money.’
‘Somebody has to worry,’ said George.
‘Yes, but it’s absurd to pinch and scrape in all these little ways. Why don’t you make your father give you some more money?’
‘He already gives me a very handsome allowance.’
‘It’s awful to be completely dependent on your father, as you are! He ought to settle some money on you outright.’
‘That’s not his way of doing things.’
Magdalene looked at him. Her hazel eyes were suddenly sharp and keen. The expressionless egg-like face showed sudden meaning.
‘He’s frightfully rich, isn’t he, George? A kind of millionaire, isn’t he?’
‘A millionaire twice over, I believe.’
Magdalene gave an envious sigh.
‘How did he make it all? South Africa, wasn’t it?’
‘Yes, he made a big fortune there in his early days. Mainly diamonds.’
‘Thrilling!’ said Magdalene.
‘Then he came to England and started in business and his fortune has actually doubled or trebled itself, I believe.’
‘What will happen when he d
ies?’ asked Magdalene.
‘Father’s never said much on the subject. Of course one can’t exactly ask. I should imagine that the bulk of his money will go to Alfred and myself. Alfred, of course, will get the larger share.’
‘You’ve got other brothers, haven’t you?’
‘Yes, there’s my brother David. I don’t fancy he will get much. He went off to do art or some tomfoolery of that kind. I believe Father warned him that he would cut him out of his will and David said he didn’t care.’
‘How silly!’ said Magdalene with scorn.
‘There was my sister Jennifer too. She went off with a foreigner—a Spanish artist—one of David’s friends. But she died just over a year ago. She left a daughter, I believe. Father might leave a little money to her, but nothing much. And of course there’s Harry—’
He stopped, slightly embarrassed.
‘Harry?’ said Magdalene, surprised. ‘Who is Harry?’
‘Ah—er—my brother.’
‘I never knew you had another brother.’
‘My dear, he wasn’t a great—er—credit—to us. We don’t mention him. His behaviour was disgraceful. We haven’t heard anything of him for some years now. He’s probably dead.’
Magdalene laughed suddenly.
‘What is it? What are you laughing at?’
Magdalene said:
‘I was only thinking how funny it was that you—you, George, should have a disreputable brother! You’re so very respectable.’
‘I should hope so,’ said George coldly.
Her eyes narrowed.
‘Your father isn’t—very respectable, George.’
‘Really, Magdalene!’
‘Sometimes the things he says make me feel quite uncomfortable.’
George said:
‘Really, Magdalene, you surprise me. Does—er—does Lydia feel the same?’
‘He doesn’t say the same kind of things to Lydia,’ said Magdalene. She added angrily, ‘No, he never says them to her. I can’t think why not.’
George glanced at her quickly and then glanced away.
‘Oh, well,’ he said vaguely. ‘One must make allowances. At Father’s age—and with his health being so bad—’
He paused. His wife asked:
‘Is he really—pretty ill?’
‘Oh, I wouldn’t say that. He’s remarkably tough. All the same, since he wants to have his family round him at Christmas, I think we are quite right to go. It may be his last Christmas.’
She said sharply:
‘You say that, George, but really, I suppose, he may live for years?’
Slightly taken aback, her husband stammered:
‘Yes—yes, of course he may.’
Magdalene turned away.
‘Oh, well,’ she said, ‘I suppose we’re doing the right thing by going.’
‘I have no doubt about it.’
‘But I hate it! Alfred’s so dull, and Lydia snubs me.’
‘Nonsense.’
‘She does. And I hate that beastly manservant.’
‘Old Tressilian?’
‘No, Horbury. Sneaking round like a cat and smirking.’
‘Really, Magdalene, I can’t see that Horbury can affect you in any way!’
‘He just gets on my nerves, that’s all. But don’t let’s bother. We’ve got to go, I can see that. Won’t do to offend the old man.’
‘No—no, that’s just the point. About the servants’ Christmas dinner—’
‘Not now, George, some other time. I’ll just ring up Lydia and tell her that we’ll come by the five-twenty tomorrow.’
Magdalene left the room precipitately. After telephoning she went up to her own room and sat down in front of the desk. She let down the flap and rummaged in its various pigeon-holes. Cascades of bills came tumbling out. Magdalene sorted through them, trying to arrange them in some kind of order. Finally, with an impatient sigh, she bundled them up and thrust them back whence they had come. She passed a hand over her smooth platinum head.
‘What on earth am I to do?’ she murmured.
VI
On the first floor of Gorston Hall a long passage led to a big room overlooking the front drive. It was a room furnished in the more flamboyant of old-fashioned styles. It had heavy brocaded wallpaper, rich leather armchairs, large vases embossed with dragons, sculptures in bronze…Everything in it was magnificent, costly and solid.
In a big grandfather armchair, the biggest and most imposing of all the chairs, sat the thin, shrivelled figure of an old man. His long clawlike hands rested on the arms of the chair. A gold-mounted stick was by his side. He wore an old shabby blue dressing-gown. On his feet were carpet slippers. His hair was white and the skin of his face was yellow.
Ashabby, insignificant figure, one might have thought. But the nose, aquiline and proud, and the eyes, dark and intensely alive, might cause an observer to alter his opinion. Here was fire and life and vigour.
Old Simeon Lee cackled to himself, a sudden, high cackle of amusement.
He said:
‘You gave my message to Mrs Alfred, hey?’
Horbury was standing beside his chair. He replied in his soft deferential voice:
‘Yes, sir.’
‘Exactly in the words I told you? Exactly, mind?’
‘Yes, sir. I didn’t make a mistake, sir.’
‘No—you don’t make mistakes. You’d better not make mistakes either—or you’ll regret it! And what did she say, Horbury? What did Mr Alfred say?’
Quietly, unemotionally, Horbury repeated what had passed. The old man cackled again and rubbed his hands together.
‘Splendid…First rate…They’ll have been thinking and wondering—all the afternoon! Splendid! I’ll have ’em up now. Go and get them.’
‘Yes, sir.’
Horbury walked noiselessly across the room and went out.
‘And, Horbury—’
The old man looked round, then cursed to himself.
‘Fellow moves like a cat. Never know where he is.’
He sat quite still in his chair, his fingers caressing his chin till there was a tap on the door, and Alfred and Lydia came in.
‘Ah, there you are, there you are. Sit here, Lydia, my dear, by me. What a nice colour you’ve got.’
‘I’ve been out in the cold. It makes one’s cheeks burn afterwards.’
Alfred said:
‘How are you, Father, did you have a good rest this afternoon?’
‘First rate—first rate. Dreamt about the old days! That was before I settled down and became a pillar of society.’
He cackled with sudden laughter.
His daughter-in-law sat silently smiling with polite attention.
Alfred said:
‘What’s this, Father, about two extra being expected for Christmas?’
‘Ah, that! Yes, I must tell you about that. It’s going to be a grand Christmas for me this year—a grand Christmas. Let me see, George is coming and Magdalene—’
Lydia said:
‘Yes, they are arriving tomorrow by the five-twenty.’
Old Simeon said:
‘Poor stick, George! Nothing but a gasbag! Still, he is my son.’
Alfred said:
‘His constituents like him.’
Simeon cackled again.
‘They probably think he’s honest. Honest! There never was a Lee who was honest yet.’
‘Oh, come now, Father.’
‘I except you, my boy. I except you.’
‘And David?’ asked Lydia.
‘David now. I’m curious to see the boy after all these years. He was a namby-pamby youngster. Wonder what his wife is like? At any rate he hasn’t married a girl twenty years younger than himself, like that fool George!’
‘Hilda wrote a very nice letter,’ said Lydia. ‘I’ve just had a wire from her confirming it and saying they are definitely arriving tomorrow.’
Hercule Poirot's Christmas Page 3