Read Online Quartet in Autumn by Barbara Pym - Free Book Online Page A

been managing your housework all right?' The dust on the hall table told its own story and the floor looked grey and gritty. Real nitty-gritty, Janice smiled at the fancy. But of course one mustn't smile — how had she been coping? She wished Marcia would make some remark, however trite, instead of staring at her in that unnerving way. There was a shopping basket on a chair in the hall. This could be a talking point and Janice seized on it with relief.
    'I see you've been shopping.'
    'Yes. Saturday is my shopping day.'
    This at least was encouraging, that she had a shopping day, just like any other woman. But what had she bought? Nothing but tinned food, it seemed. A word of tactful criticism and friendly advice was needed here. Fresh vegetables, even if only a cabbage, would be better than processed peas, and apples or oranges than tinned peaches. She ought to be able to afford suitable food, but perhaps she didn't want to eat sensibly, that was the annoying and irritating thing about the people one went to see. But of course she had been in hospital; she was still 'under the doctor, as the expression was. Didn't he ever enquire into her diet?
    'I always like to have plenty of tinned foods in the house,' Marcia said in a rather grand manner when Janice tried to suggest that fresh food would be better for her.
    'Oh, yes, of course. Tins are very useful, especially when you can't get out or don't want to go to the shops.' No point in going on to somebody like Marcia who obviously wouldn't be led or advised by anyone. Janice was getting to know that she was the kind of person one mustn't interfere with but just keep an eye on. It would be better not to make any comment on the housework or lack of it. Some people didn't like doing housework, anyway.
    'Goodbye, then,' she said. 'I'll pop in again some time.'
    When she had gone Marcia took her shopping bag to unpack it in the kitchen. Every week she bought some tins for her store cupboard and now she spent some time arranging them. There was a good deal of classifying and sorting to be done here; the tins could be arranged according to size or by types of food — meat, fish, fruit, vegetables, soup or miscellaneous. This last category included such unclassifiable items as tomato puree, stuffed vine leaves (this was an impulse buy) and tapioca pudding. There was work to be done here and Marcia enjoyed doing it.
    Then, as the day was fine, she went into the garden and picked her way over the long uncut grass to the shed where she kept milk bottles. These needed to be checked from time to time and occasionally she even went as far as dusting them. Sometimes she would put out one for the milkman but she mustn't let the hoard get too low because if there was a national emergency of the kind that seemed so frequent nowadays or even another war, there could well be a shortage of milk bottles and we might find ourselves back in the situation of 'No bottle, no milk', as in the last war. As she moved among the bottles Marcia was irritated to discover one of an alien brand among the United Dairy bottles — 'County Dairies', it said. Wherever had that come from? She didn't remember noticing it before and of course the milkman wouldn't take it back — they only collected their own bottles. She stood with it in her hand, frowning at the effort of trying to remember where it could possibly have come from. Then it dawned on her. Letty had given her some milk one day at the office. She had been staying with that friend of hers in the country and had brought back a pint of milk, had drunk some of it for her lunch, then given the rest to Marcia. So that was it. Marcia felt suddenly annoyed with Letty for having foisted this alien bottle on her. She must be made to take it back.
    Seeing her coming out of the shed with a milk bottle in her hand, Nigel, the young man next door, told himself that here was a chance to show neighbourly friendliness, as his wife Priscilla was always urging him to.