Read Online A Family and a Fortune by Ivy Compton-Burnett - Free Book Online

find that enough,’ said Justine, who was wise in this attitude, as she would seldom have been advised to go further.
    â€˜How very unlike Edgar and Justine are, dear!’ said Matty to her sister. ‘They have not a touch of each other, and they say that daughters are like their fathers. They are both indeed themselves.’
    â€˜Well, that is as well,’ said Justine. ‘Father would not like me to be a copy of him. He would not feel the attraction of opposites.’
    â€˜Opposite. Yes, that is almost the word,’ said her aunt.
    Miss Griffin gave the sudden, sharp breath of someone awaking from a minute’s sleep, and looked about with bewildered eyes.
    â€˜Poor Miss Griffin, you are tired out,’ said Blanche.
    â€˜I am so glad you got off for a minute, Miss Griffin,’ said Justine.
    â€˜I did not know where I was; I must have dropped offwith all the voices round me,’ said Miss Griffin, with a view of the talk which she would hardly have taken if she had heard it. ‘I don’t know why I did, I am sure.’
    â€˜Being overtired is quite enough reason,’ said Justine.
    â€˜So Miss Griffin is the first of us to make it one,’ said Matty in an easy tone.
    â€˜It is a stronger reason in her case.’
    â€˜Is it, dear?’ said Matty, so lightly that she hardly seemed to enunciate the words.
    â€˜Why, Aunt Matty, she must have done twice as much as you - as anyone else. You know that.’
    â€˜Twice as much as I have, dear? Many times as much, I daresay; I have been able to do hardly anything. And of course I know it.’ Matty gave her little laugh. ‘But what we have mostly done today, is sitting in the train, and we have done it together.’
    â€˜Yes, but the preparations before and the unpacking afterwards! It must have been overwhelming. The time in the train must have been quite a respite.’
    â€˜Yes, that is what I meant, dear.’
    â€˜But it was only one day, only part of one. The work must have begun directly you reached this house. I can see how much has been achieved. You can’t possibly grasp it, sitting in a chair.’
    â€˜So sitting in a chair has become an advantage, has it?’
    â€˜Poor, dear Aunt Matty!’ said Justine, sitting on the arm of the chair, as if to share for the moment her aunt’s lot. ‘But it cannot contribute to the actual weariness, you know. That is a thing by itself.’
    â€˜So there is only one kind of weariness,’ said Matty, putting her hand on her niece’s and speaking in a tone of gentle tolerance towards her unknowing youth.
    â€˜Dear Aunt Matty! There must be times when to be hustled and driven seems the most enviable thing in the world. You are more unfortunate than anyone,’ said Justine, indicating and accepting her aunt’s lot and Miss Griffin’s.
    Miss Griffin rose and went to the door with an explanatorylook at Matty. Dudley opened it and followed her.
    â€˜How do people feel on a first night in a new place? I have never had the experience. I have lived in the same house all my life.’
    Miss Griffin lifted her eyes with a look he had not expected, almost of consternation.
    â€˜It does make you feel uncertain about things. But I expect you soon get used to it. I was in the last house thirty-one years. Miss Seaton had never lived in any other.’
    â€˜And are you sorry to come away from it?’
    â€˜No, not very. It makes a change. We shall see different people. And it will be nice for Miss Seaton to have her sister and her family. It was the wisest plan.’
    â€˜The best plan, not the wisest. It was very unwise. But a great many of the best things are that.’
    Miss Griffin looked at him with a hint of a smile.
    â€˜You agree with me, do you not?’
    Miss Griffin checked her smile and looked aside.
    â€˜You and I must be very much alike. We both live in other people’s houses; we are both very