I wondered, said Mum. I wondered what it would all be like here. She looked round her. Yes, its a fine house. Fine curtains and fine chairs and fine pictures.
You must have some tea, said Ellie.
You look as if youve finished tea.
Teas a thing that need never be finished, said Ellie, then she said to Greta, I wont ring the bell. Greta, will you go out to the kitchen and make a fresh pot of tea?
Of course, darling, said Greta and went out of the room, looking over her shoulder once in a sharp, almost scared way at my mother.
My mother sat down.
Wheres your luggage? said Ellie. Have you come to stay? I hope you have.
No, lass, I wont stay. Im going back by train in half an hours time. I just wanted to look in on you. Then she added rather quickly, probably because she wished to get it out before Greta came back, Now dont worry yourself, love, I told him how you came to see me and paid me a visit.
Im sorry, Mike, that I didnt tell you, said Ellie firmly, only I thought perhaps Id better not.
She came out of the kindness of her heart, she did, said my mother. Shes a good girl youve married, Mike, and a pretty one. Yes, a very pretty one. Then she added half audibly, I am sorry.
Sorry, said Ellie, faintly puzzled.
Sorry for thinking the things I did, said my mother and added with a slight air of strain, Well, as you say, mothers are like that. Always inclined to be suspicious of daughters-in-law. But when I saw you, I knew hed been lucky. It seemed too good to be true to me, that it did.
What impertinence, I said, but I smiled at her as I said it. I always had excellent taste.
Youve always had expensive taste, thats what you mean, said my mother and looked at the brocade curtains.
Im not really the worse for being an expensive taste, said Ellie, smiling at her.
You make him save a bit of money from time to time, said Mum, itll be good for his character.
I refuse to have my character improved, I said. The advantage of taking a wife is that the wife thinks everything you do is perfect. Isnt that so, Ellie?
Ellie was looking happy again now. She laughed and said:
Youre above yourself, Mike! The conceit of you.
Greta came back then with the teapot. Wed been a little ill at ease and we were just getting over it. Somehow when Greta came back the strain came out again. My mother resisted all endeavours on Ellies part to make her stay over and Ellie didnt insist after a short while. She and I walked down together with my mother along the winding drive through the trees and to the gateway.
What do you call it? my mother asked abruptly.
Ellie said, Gipsys Acre.
Ah, said my mother, yes, youve got gipsies around here, havent you?
How did you know that? I asked.
I saw one as I came up. She looked at me queer, she did.
Shes all right really, I said, a little half-baked, thats all.
Why do you say shes half-baked? Shed a funny look to her when she looked at me. Shes got a grievance against you of some kind?
I dont think its real, said Ellie. I think shes imagined it all. That weve done her out of her land or something like that.
I expect she wants money, said my mother. Gipsies are like that. Make a big song and dance sometimes of how theyve been done down one way or another. But they soon stop when they get some money in their itching palms.
You dont like gipsies, said Ellie.
Theyre a thieving lot. They dont work steady and they dont keep their hands off what doesnt belong to them. Oh well, Ellie said, we we dont worry any more now.
My mother said goodbye and then added, Whos the young lady that lives with you?
Ellie explained how Greta had been with her for three years before she married and how but for Greta she would have had a miserable life.
Gretas done everything to help us. Shes a wonderful person, said Ellie. I wouldnt know how how to get on without her.
Shes living with you or on a visit?
Oh well, said Ellie. She avoided the question. She shes living with us at present because I sprained my ankle and had to have someone to look after me. But Im all right again now.
Married people do best alone together when theyre starting, my mother said.
We stood by the gate watching my mother march away.
Shes got a very strong personality, said Ellie thoughtfully.
I was angry with Ellie, really very angry because shed gone and found out my mother and visited her without telling me. But when she turned and stood looking at me with one eyebrow raised a little and the funny half-timid, half-satisfied little-girl smile on her face, I couldnt help relenting.
What a deceitful little thing you are, I said.
Well, said Ellie, Ive had to be sometimes, you see.
Thats like a Shakespeare play I once saw. They did it at a school I was at. I quoted self-consciously, She has deceivd her father and may thee[59].
What did you play Othello?
No, I said, I played the girls father. Thats why I remember that speech, I suppose. Its practically the only thing I had to say.
She has deceivd her father and may thee, said Ellie thoughtfully. I didnt even deceive my father as far as I know. Perhaps I would have later.
I dont suppose he would have taken very kindly to your marrying me, I said, any more than your stepmother did.
No, said Ellie, I dont suppose he would. He was pretty conventional I think. Then she gave that funny little-girl smile again. So I suppose Id have had to be like Desdemona and deceived my father and run away with you.
Why did you want to see my mother so much, Ellie? I asked curiously.
Its not so much I wanted to see her, said Ellie, but I felt terribly bad not doing anything about it. You havent mentioned your mother very often but I did gather that shes always done everything she could for you. Come to the rescue about things and worked very hard to get you extra schooling and things like that. And I thought it seemed so mean and purse-proud of me not to go near her.
Well, it wouldnt have been your fault, I said, it would have been mine.
Yes, said Ellie. I can understand that perhaps you didnt want me to go and see her.
You think Ive got an inferiority complex about my mother? Thats not true at all, Ellie, I assure you it isnt. It wasnt that.
No, said Ellie thoughtfully, I know that now. It was because you didnt want her to do a lot of mother stuff.
Mother stuff? I queried.
Well, said Ellie, I can see that shes the kind of person who would know quite well what other people ought to do. I mean, shed want you to go in for certain kinds of jobs.
Quite right, I said. Steady jobs. Settling down.
It wouldnt have mattered very much now, said Ellie. I dare say it was very good advice. But it wouldnt have been the right advice ever for you, Mike. Youre not a settler down. You dont want to be steady. You want to go and see things and do things be on top of the world.
I want to stay here in this house with you, I said.
For a while, perhaps And I think I think youll always want to come back here. And so shall I. I think we shall come here every year and I think we shall be happier here than anywhere else. But youll want to go places too. Youll want to travel and see things and buy things. Perhaps think up new plans for doing the garden here. Perhaps well go and look at Italian gardens, Japanese gardens, landscape gardens of all kinds.
You make life seem very exciting, Ellie, I said. Im sorry I was cross.
Oh, I dont mind your being cross, said Ellie. Im not afraid of you. Then she added, with a frown: Your mother didnt like Greta.
A lot of people dont like Greta, I said.
Including you.
Now look here, Ellie, youre always saying that. Its not true. I was just a bit jealous of her at first, that was all. We get on very well now. And I added, I think perhaps she makes people get rather on the defensive.
Mr Lippincott doesnt like her either, does he? He thinks shes got too much influence over me, said Ellie.
Has she?
I wonder why you should ask that. Yes, I think perhaps she has. Its only natural, shes rather a dominant personality and I had to have someone I could trust in and rely on. Someone whod stand up for me.
And see you got your own way? I asked her, laughing.
We went into the house arm in arm. For some reason it seemed dark that afternoon. I suppose because the sun had just left the terrace and left a feeling of darkness behind it. Ellie said:
Whats the matter, Mike?
I dont know, I said. Just suddenly I felt as though someone were walking over my grave.
A goose is walking over your grave. Thats the real saying, isnt it? said Ellie.
Greta wasnt about anywhere. The servants said shed gone out for a walk.
Now that my mother knew all about my marriage and had seen Ellie, I did what I had really wanted to do for some time. I sent her a large cheque. I told her to move into a better house and to buy herself any additional furniture she wanted. Things like that. I had doubts of course as to whether she would accept it or not. It wasnt money that Id worked for and I couldnt honestly pretend it was. As I expected, she sent the cheque back torn in two with a scrawled note. Ill have naught to do with any of this, she wrote. Youll never be different. I know that now, heaven help you. I flung it down in front of Ellie.
You see what my mothers like, I said. I married a rich girl, and Im living on my rich wifes money and the old battleaxe disapproves of it!
Dont worry, said Ellie. Lots of people think that way. Shell get over it. She loves you very much, Mike, she added.
Then why does she want to alter me all the time? Make me into her pattern. Im myself. Im not anybody elses pattern. Im not my mothers little boy to be moulded the way she likes. Im myself. Im an adult. Im me!
Youre you, said Ellie, and I love you.
And then, perhaps to distract me, she said something rather disquieting.
What do you think, she said, of this new manservant of ours?
I hadnt thought about him. What was there to think? If anything I preferred him to our last one who had not troubled to conceal his low opinion of my social status.
Hes all right, I said. Why?
I just wondered whether he might be a security man.
A security man? What do you mean?
A detective. I thought Uncle Andrew might have arranged it.
Why should he?
Well possible kidnapping, I suppose. In the States, you know, we usually had guards especially in the country.
Another of the disadvantages of having money that I hadnt known about!
What a beastly idea!
Oh, I dont know I suppose Im used to it. What does it matter? One doesnt really notice.
Is the wife in it, too?
Shed have to be, I think, though she cooks very well. I should think that Uncle Andrew, or perhaps Stanford Lloyd, whichever one of them thought of it, must have paid our last ones to leave, and had these two all lined up ready to take their place. It would have been quite easy.
Without telling you? I was still incredulous.
Theyd never dream of telling me. I might have kicked up a fuss[60]. Anyway, I may be quite wrong about them. She went on dreamily. Its only that one gets a kind of feeling when ones been used to people of that kind always being around.
Poor little rich girl, I said savagely.
Ellie did not mind at all.
I suppose that does describe it rather well, she said.
The things Im learning about you all the time, Ellie, I said.
Chapter 17
What a mysterious thing sleep is. You go to bed worrying about gipsies and secret enemies, and detectives planted in your house and the possibilities of kidnapping and a hundred other things; and sleep whisks you away from it all. You travel very far and you dont know where youve been, but when you wake up, its to a totally new world. No worries, no apprehensions. Instead, when I woke up on the 17th September I was in a mood of boisterous excitement.
A wonderful day, I said to myself with conviction. This is going to be a wonderful day. I meant it. I was like those people in advertisements that offer to go anywhere and do anything. I went over plans in my head. I had arranged to meet Major Phillpot at a sale at a country house about fifteen miles away. They had some very nice stuff there and Id already marked down two or three items in the catalogue. I was quite excited about the whole thing.
Phillpot was very knowledgeable about period furniture and silver and things of that kind, not because he was artistic he was entirely a sporting man but simply because he knew. His whole family was knowledgeable.
I looked over the catalogue at breakfast. Ellie had come down in a riding habit. She rode most mornings now sometimes alone, sometimes with Claudia. She had the American habit of drinking coffee and a glass of orange juice and nothing much else for breakfast. My tastes, now that I hadnt got to restrain them in any way, were very much those of a Victorian squire! I liked lots of hot dishes on the sideboard. I ate kidneys this morning and sausages and bacon as well. Delicious.
What are you doing, Greta? I asked.
Greta said she was meeting Claudia Hardcastle at the station at Market Chadwell and they were going up to London to a white sale. I asked what a white sale was.
Does there really have to be white in it? I asked.
Greta looked scornful and said that a white sale meant a sale of household linen and blankets and towels and sheets, etc. There were some very good bargains at a special shop in Bond Street of which she had been sent a catalogue.
I said to Ellie, Well, if Greta is going to London for the day, why dont you drive in and meet us at the George in Bartington? The food theres very good, so old Phillpot said. He suggested you might come. One oclock. You go through Market Chadwell and then you take a turning about three miles after that. Its sign-posted, I think.
All right, said Ellie, Ill be there.
I mounted her and she went off riding through the trees. Ellie loved riding. She usually rode up one of the winding tracks and came out on the Downs and had a gallop before returning home. I left the smaller car for Ellie as it was easier to park and took the big Chrysler myself. I got to Bartington Manor just before the sale began. Phillpot was there already and had kept a place for me.