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

them. No one will have it said that he has no knowledge of life; and it could not be true.’
    â€˜She has been with Matty and her father for a long time. I am not sure how long.’
    â€˜I am. She told me. But there are things which cannot pass my lips.’
    â€˜It must be over thirty years.’
    â€˜You are a tougher creature than I am. I wonder if people know that you are.’
    â€˜It is difficult to form a picture of all those years.’
    â€˜Edgar, you do sometimes say the most dreadful things. You should remember my shrinking nature. I shall have to see a great deal of Miss Griffin. Will seeing her take away that picture before my eyes?’
    â€˜Come along, you two,’ called Justine, turning with beckoning hand. ‘If you wait every minute to argue, we shall never get up the drive. Mother does not like to keep stopping.’
    That was true of Blanche, and therefore she had not stopped, but was proceeding towards the house, with her short, unequal steps carrying her rapidly over the ground.
    When she came to the porch she paused, as if waiting there affected her differently.
    â€˜There is that little brick house beyond the trees,’ said Justine, turning to look back as they all met.
    â€˜Your eyes do not deceive you,’ said her father, with a smile.
    â€˜Now don’t try to snub me, Father; that is not like your dealings. There it is, and it is good to think of Grandpa and Aunt Matty snugly sheltered in it. I shall call up the picture tonight when I am in bed.’
    â€˜At night,’ murmured Dudley, ‘and in bed! In those hours when things rise up before us out of their true proportion!’
    â€˜What are you murmuring about to yourself, Uncle?’
    â€˜About the picture which you will call up in the night.’
    â€˜You like to share it with me? It is a pretty picture, isn’t it? Dear Grandpa, with his white hair and fine old face; and Aunt Matty, handsome in the firelight, vivacious and fluent, and no more querulous than one can forgive in her helpless state; and dear, patient Miss Griffin, thinking of everyone but herself. It is a satisfying sight.’
    â€˜Perhaps it is healthier to bring it out into the light.’
    â€˜You were the one who did not forgive your aunt,’ said Edgar, smiling again at his daughter.
    â€˜Now, Father, don’t think that your naughty little thrusts are atoned for by your especial smile for me, dear to me though it is.’ Edgar’s expression wavered as he heard it defined. ‘Aunt Matty and I are the firmest friends and very good for one another. We never mind looking at ourselves through each other’s eyes and getting useful light on our personalities. I do not believe in putting disabled people on one side and denying them their share in healthy human life. It seems to me a wrong thing to do, and in the end bad for everyone. So I sound my bracing note and snap my fingers at the consequences.’ Justine illustrated what she said.
    The scene in the lodge was as she saw it, except that Matty’s querulousness was missing. The latter was sitting at dinner, talking with a great liveliness, as if her audience were larger than it was, almost as if in practice for greateroccasions. She often threw herself into the entertainment of her father and her companion, with or without thought of imaginary listeners.
    â€˜And then those funny, little, country shoes! Dear Blanche, still full of her quaint, little, old touches! I had to laugh to myself when I saw her come tripping and stumbling in, such a dear, familiar figure!’
    â€˜No one would have known you had,’ said Oliver. ‘It might have been better to give some sign. It seemed the last thing to expect of you.’
    Matty was indifferent to her father’s criticism and knew that her talk diverted him.
    â€˜And then her own little, charitable ways, a mixture of daughter and sister and lady bountiful! So full of