What does it settle?
Ellie did not answer for a minute or two and then she said with a sigh, I must write tonight.
Write to whom?
Oh, to Cora, and to Uncle Frank, I suppose, and Uncle Andrew.
Whos Uncle Andrew? Hes a new one.
Andrew Lippincott. Not really an uncle. Hes my principal guardian or trustee or whatever you call it. Hes a lawyer a very well-known one.
What are you going to say?
Im going to tell them Im married. I couldnt say suddenly to Nora Bennington Let me introduce my husband. There would have been frightful shrieks and exclamations and I never heard you were married. Tell me all about it, darling etcetera, etcetera. Its only fair that my stepmother and Uncle Frank and Uncle Andrew should be the first to know. She sighed. Oh well, weve had a lovely time up to now.
What will they say or do? I asked.
Make a fuss, I expect, said Ellie, in her placid way. It doesnt matter if they do and theyll have sense enough to know that. Well have to have a meeting, I expect. We could go to New York. Would you like that? She looked at me inquiringly.
No, I said, I shouldnt like it in the least.
Then theyll come to London probably, or some of them will. I dont know if youd like that any better.
I shouldnt like any of it. I want to be with you and see our house going up brick by brick as soon as Santonix gets there.
So we can, said Ellie. After all, meetings with the family wont take long. Possibly just one big splendid row would do. Get it over in one. Either we fly over there or they fly over here.
I thought you said your stepmother was at Salzburg.
Oh, I just said that. It sounded odd to say I didnt know where she was. Yes, said Ellie with a sigh, well go home and meet them all. Mike, I hope you wont mind too much.
Mind what your family?
Yes. You wont mind if theyre nasty to you.
I suppose its the price I have to pay for marrying you, I said. Ill bear it.
Theres your mother, said Ellie thoughtfully.
For heavens sake, Ellie, youre not going to try and arrange a meeting between your stepmother in her frills and her furbelows and my mother from her back street. What do you think theyd have to say to each other?
If Cora was my own mother they might have quite a lot to say to each other, said Ellie. I wish you wouldnt be so obsessed[39], with class distinctions Mike!
Me! I said incredulously. Whats your American phrase I come from the wrong side of the tracks, dont I?
You dont want to write it on a placard and pin it on yourself.
I dont know the right clothes to wear, I said bitterly. I dont know the right way to talk about things and I dont know anything really about pictures or art or music. Im only just learning who to tip and how much to give.
Dont you think, Mike, that that makes it all much more exciting for you? I think so.
Anyway, I said, youre not to drag my mother into your family party.
I wasnt proposing to drag anyone into anything, but I think, Mike, I ought to go and see your mother when we go back to England.
No, I said explosively.
She looked at me rather startled.
Why not, Mike, though? I mean, apart from anything else, I mean its just very rude not to. Have you told her youre married?
Not yet.
Why not?
I didnt answer.
Wouldnt the simplest way be to tell her youre married and take me to see her when we get back to England?
No, I said again. It was not so explosive this time but it was still fairly well underlined.
You dont want me to meet her, said Ellie, slowly.
I didnt of course. I suppose it was obvious enough but the last thing I could do was to explain. I didnt see how I could explain.
It wouldnt be the right thing to do, I said slowly. You must see that. Im sure it would lead to trouble.
You think she wouldnt like me?
Nobody could help liking you, but it wouldnt be oh I dont know how to put it. But she might be upset and confused. After all, well, I mean Ive married out of my station. Thats the old-fashioned term. She wouldnt like that.
Ellie shook her head slowly.
Does anybody really think like that nowadays?
Of course they do. They do in your country too.
Yes, she said, in a way thats true but if anyone makes good there
You mean if a man makes a lot of money.
Well, not only money.
Yes, I said, its money. If a man makes a lot of money hes admired and looked up to and it doesnt matter where he was born.
Well, thats the same everywhere, said Ellie.
Please, Ellie, I said. Please dont go and see my mother.
I still think its unkind.
No it isnt. Cant you let me know whats best for my own mother? Shed be upset. I tell you she would.
But you must tell her youve got married.
All right, I said. Ill do that.
It occurred to me it would be easier to write to my mother from abroad. That evening when Ellie was writing to Uncle Andrew and Uncle Frank and her stepmother Cora van Stuyvesant, I, too, was writing my own letter. It was quite short.
Dear Mum, I wrote. I ought to have told you before but I felt a bit awkward. I got married three weeks ago. It was all rather sudden. Shes a very pretty girl and very sweet. Shes got a lot of money which makes things a bit awkward sometimes. Were going to build ourselves a house somewhere in the country. Just at present were travelling around Europe. All the best, Yours, Mike.
The results of our evenings correspondence were somewhat varied. My mother let a week elapse before she sent a letter remarkably typical of her.
Dear Mike. I was glad to get your letter. I hope youll be very happy. Your affectionate mother.
As Ellie had prophesied, there was far more fuss on her side. Wed stirred up a regular hornets nest of trouble[40]. We were beset by reporters who wanted news of our romantic marriage, there were articles in the papers about the Guteman heiress and her romantic elopement, there were letters from bankers and lawyers. And finally official meetings were arranged. We met Santonix on the site of Gipsys Acre and we looked at the plans there and discussed things, and then having seen things under way we came to London, took a suite at Claridges and prepared, as they say in old world books, to receive cavalry.
The first to arrive was Mr Andrew P. Lippincott. He was an elderly man, dry and precise in appearance. He was long and lean with suave and courteous manners[41]. He was a Bostonian and from his voice I wouldnt have known he was an American. By arrangement through the telephone he called upon us in our suite at 12 oclock. Ellie was nervous, I could tell, although she concealed it very well.
Mr Lippincott kissed Ellie and extended a hand and a pleasant smile to me.
Well, Ellie my dear, you are looking very well. Blooming, I might say.
How are you, Uncle Andrew? How did you come? Did you fly?
No, I had a very pleasant trip across on the Queen Mary. And this is your husband?
No, I had a very pleasant trip across on the Queen Mary. And this is your husband?
This is Mike, yes.
I played up, or thought I did. How are you, sir? I said. Then I asked him if hed have a drink, which he refused pleasantly. He sat down in an upright chair with gilt arms to it and looked, still smiling, from Ellie to me.
Well, he said, you young people have been giving us shocks. All very romantic, eh?
Im sorry, said Ellie, I really am sorry.
Are you? said Mr Lippincott, rather dryly.
I thought it was the best way, said Ellie.
I am not altogether of your opinion there, my dear.
Uncle Andrew, Ellie said, you know perfectly well that if Id done it any other way there would have been the most frightful fuss.
Why should there have been such a frightful fuss?
You know what theyd have been like, said Ellie. You too, she added accusingly. She added, Ive had two letters from Cora. One yesterday and one this morning.
You must discount a certain amount of agitation, my dear. Its only natural under the circumstances, dont you think?
Its my business who I get married to and how and where.
You may think so, but you will find that the women of any family would rarely agree as to that.
Really, Ive saved everyone a lot of trouble.
You may put it that way.
But its true, isnt it?
But you practised, did you not, a good deal of deception, helped by someone who should have known better than to do what she did.
Ellie flushed.
You mean Greta? She only did what I asked her to. Are they all very upset with her?
Naturally. Neither she nor you could expect anything else, could you? She was, remember, in a position of trust.
Im of age. I can do what I like.
I am speaking of the period of time before you were of age. The deceptions began then, did they not?
You mustnt blame Ellie, sir, I said. To begin with I didnt know what was going on and since all her relations are in another country it wasnt easy for me to get in touch with them.
I quite realize, said Mr Lippincott, that Greta posted certain letters and gave certain information to Mrs van Stuyvesant and to myself as she was requested to do by Ellie here, and made, if I may say so, a very competent job of it. You have met Greta Andersen, Michael? I may call you Michael, since you are Ellies husband?
Of course, I said, call me Mike. No, I havent met Miss Andersen
Indeed? That seems to me surprising. He looked at me with a long thoughtful gaze. I should have thought that she would have been present at your marriage.
No, Greta wasnt there, said Ellie. She threw me a look of reproach and I shifted uncomfortably.
Mr Lippincotts eyes were still resting on me thoughtfully. He made me uncomfortable. He seemed about to say something more then changed his mind.
Im afraid, he said after a moment or two, that you two, Michael and Ellie, will have to put up with a certain amount of reproaches and criticism from Ellies family.
I suppose they are going to descend on me in a bunch, said Ellie.
Very probably, said Mr Lippincott. Ive tried to pave the way, he added.
Youre on our side, Uncle Andrew? said Ellie, smiling at him.
You must hardly ask a prudent lawyer to go as far as that. I have learnt that in life it is wise to accept what is a fait accompli. You two have fallen in love with each other and have got married and have, I understood you to say, Ellie, bought a piece of property in the South of England and have already started building a house on it. You propose, therefore, to live in this country?
We want to make our home here, yes. Do you object to our doing that? I said with a touch of anger in my voice. Ellies married to me and shes a British subject now. So why shouldnt she live in England?
No reason at all. In fact, there is no reason why Fenella should not live in any country she chooses, or indeed have property in more than one country. The house in Nassau belongs to you, remember, Ellie.
I always thought it was Coras. She always has behaved as though it was.
But the actual property rights are vested in you[42]. You also have the house in Long Island whenever you care to visit it. You are the owner of a great deal of oil-bearing property in the West. His voice was amiable, pleasant, but I had the feeling that the words were directed at me in some curious way. Was it his idea of trying to insinuate a wedge between me and Ellie? I was not sure. It didnt seem very sensible, rubbing it in to a man[43] that his wife owned property all over the world and was fabulously rich. If anything I should have thought that he would have played down Ellies property rights and her money and all the rest of it. If I was a fortune hunter[44] as he obviously thought, that would be all the more grist to my mill. But I did realize that Mr Lippincott was a subtle man. It would be hard at any time to know what he was driving at; what he had in his mind behind his even and pleasant manner. Was he trying in a way of his own to make me feel uncomfortable, to make me feel that I was going to be branded almost publicly as a fortune hunter? He said to Ellie:
Ive brought over a certain amount of legal stuff which youll have to go through with me, Ellie. I shall want your signature to many of these things.
Yes, of course, Uncle Andrew. Any time.
As you say, any time. Theres no hurry. I have other business in London and I shall be over here for about ten days.
Ten days, I thought. Thats a long time. I rather wished that Mr Lippincott wasnt going to be here for ten days. He appeared friendly enough towards me, though, as you might say, indicating that he still reserved his judgment on certain points, but I wondered at that moment whether he was really my enemy. If he was, he would not be the kind of man to show his hand.
Well, he went on, now that weve all met and come to terms, as you might say, for the future, I would like to have a short interview with this husband of yours.
Ellie said, You can talk to us both. She was up in arms. I put a hand on her arm.
Now dont flare up, ducks, youre not a mother hen protecting a chicken. I propelled her gently to the door in the wall that led into the bedroom. Uncle Andrew wants to size me up, I said. Hes well within his rights.
I pushed her gently through the double doors. I shut them both and came back into the room. It was a large handsome sitting-room. I came back and took a chair and faced Mr Lippincott. All right, I said. Shoot.
Thank you, Michael, he said. First of all I want to assure you that I am not, as you may be thinking, your enemy in any way.
Well, I said, Im glad to hear that. I didnt sound very sure about it.
Let me speak frankly, said Mr Lippincott, more frankly than I could do before that dear child to whom I am guardian and of whom I am very fond. You may not yet appreciate it fully, Michael, but Ellie is a most unusually sweet and lovable girl.
Dont you worry. Im in love with her all right.
That is not at all the same thing, said Mr Lippincott in his dry manner. I hope that as well as being in love with her you can also appreciate what a really dear and in some ways very vulnerable person she is.