Read Online The Forgotten Story by Winston Graham - Free Book Online
Authors: Winston Graham
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scared of their dignity, Anthony?â
Anthony did not know.
âI was really thinking of Aunt Phoebe then,â she said. âI might have got on with his mother if there hadnât been Aunt Phoebe. She ⦠I never could make up my mind which was the tightest about Aunt Phoebe, her mouth or her stays. Sorry if youâre shocked, I keep forgetting you havenât had a sister. Aunt Phoebe disapproved of me from the start. I was socially inferior and hadnât been educated in the wooden-face school. I was too flighty and unstable. She didnât give me a chance before she started picking holes.â Patricia choked as if the memory were not to be borne. â Naturally, the more holes she picked the more opportunity I gave her. You may say this isnât anything to do with Tom, but it is. You see, Tom couldnât understand us at all. He didnât seem to try. In his own house he was different, seemed a part of it. It was fantastic . You canât be legal in a home, not if itâs going to be a home. You canât weigh up things as if you were a judge, and then give so much credit to this side and so much credit to that. You may be able to see both sides, but you canât take both sides. If heâd come down on one side or the other, then I should have known where I was earlier.
âAfter three weeks it was about as bad as it could be. Then Dad was taken ill and I wanted to rush home and nurse him. Tom didnât want me to do that. He raised all sorts of objections that were just silly. He even offered to pay for a nurse for Dad, but I wouldnât have that. Joe wouldnât either, you may be sure. In the end of course I could see what it was: living with his family had convinced Tom that my manners needed a bit of tightening up â when I met a stranger I didnât say â How dâyou do-oâ as if there were a nasty taste in my mouth; I went up and shook hands â and Iâd committed the terrible sin of being found in the kitchen, talking to the tweenie. Anyway, I think he thought that if I stayed at Mount House long enough I should get like them, but Smoky Joeâs was a bad influence for me. As if Iâd lived anywhere else since I left school! He thought that if I went backwards and forwards between one house and the other I never would improve. So then I told him that I didnât want to improve by getting like him and his mother and his aunt, and that if he wanted someone like that I didnât know why heâd married me, and anyway the Veals had a longer pedigree than any Harrises he could find, and whether he liked it or not I was going to nurse Dad, and I wouldnât bother to come back and lower his prestige any more â¦â
Towards the end of this statement her breath had been coming as quickly as her speech. They began to go down the other side of the hill. Anthony glanced at his cousin. In talking to him she had relived some of the emotions of that time. Until two days ago she had put all this behind her, tried to shelve it and forget it. Tom Harrisâs visit had brought it all up anew. She looked neither so young nor so happy as she had done a week ago.
âWas Uncle Joe very ill then?â
âOh, yes. We thought he was going to die. Heâs better now. Iâm watching his diet so that he takes regular meals.â
âIs that why youâre not going back to Tom Harris?â
âOh, no,â she said. âThat doesnât make any difference. Iâm never going back to him. Iâm never going back.â
Anthony looked down the hill and saw Ned Pawlyn coming up it to meet them.
Chapter Seven
It became a regular practice for Anthony once or twice each week to row his uncle out to some ship in the harbour. One week it was The Grey Cat. Then it was Lavengro. Then it was Pride of Pendennis. This was followed by Lady Tregeagle. Then The Grey Cat returned from Liverpool. There were two barquentines,
Anthony did not know.
âI was really thinking of Aunt Phoebe then,â she said. âI might have got on with his mother if there hadnât been Aunt Phoebe. She ⦠I never could make up my mind which was the tightest about Aunt Phoebe, her mouth or her stays. Sorry if youâre shocked, I keep forgetting you havenât had a sister. Aunt Phoebe disapproved of me from the start. I was socially inferior and hadnât been educated in the wooden-face school. I was too flighty and unstable. She didnât give me a chance before she started picking holes.â Patricia choked as if the memory were not to be borne. â Naturally, the more holes she picked the more opportunity I gave her. You may say this isnât anything to do with Tom, but it is. You see, Tom couldnât understand us at all. He didnât seem to try. In his own house he was different, seemed a part of it. It was fantastic . You canât be legal in a home, not if itâs going to be a home. You canât weigh up things as if you were a judge, and then give so much credit to this side and so much credit to that. You may be able to see both sides, but you canât take both sides. If heâd come down on one side or the other, then I should have known where I was earlier.
âAfter three weeks it was about as bad as it could be. Then Dad was taken ill and I wanted to rush home and nurse him. Tom didnât want me to do that. He raised all sorts of objections that were just silly. He even offered to pay for a nurse for Dad, but I wouldnât have that. Joe wouldnât either, you may be sure. In the end of course I could see what it was: living with his family had convinced Tom that my manners needed a bit of tightening up â when I met a stranger I didnât say â How dâyou do-oâ as if there were a nasty taste in my mouth; I went up and shook hands â and Iâd committed the terrible sin of being found in the kitchen, talking to the tweenie. Anyway, I think he thought that if I stayed at Mount House long enough I should get like them, but Smoky Joeâs was a bad influence for me. As if Iâd lived anywhere else since I left school! He thought that if I went backwards and forwards between one house and the other I never would improve. So then I told him that I didnât want to improve by getting like him and his mother and his aunt, and that if he wanted someone like that I didnât know why heâd married me, and anyway the Veals had a longer pedigree than any Harrises he could find, and whether he liked it or not I was going to nurse Dad, and I wouldnât bother to come back and lower his prestige any more â¦â
Towards the end of this statement her breath had been coming as quickly as her speech. They began to go down the other side of the hill. Anthony glanced at his cousin. In talking to him she had relived some of the emotions of that time. Until two days ago she had put all this behind her, tried to shelve it and forget it. Tom Harrisâs visit had brought it all up anew. She looked neither so young nor so happy as she had done a week ago.
âWas Uncle Joe very ill then?â
âOh, yes. We thought he was going to die. Heâs better now. Iâm watching his diet so that he takes regular meals.â
âIs that why youâre not going back to Tom Harris?â
âOh, no,â she said. âThat doesnât make any difference. Iâm never going back to him. Iâm never going back.â
Anthony looked down the hill and saw Ned Pawlyn coming up it to meet them.
Chapter Seven
It became a regular practice for Anthony once or twice each week to row his uncle out to some ship in the harbour. One week it was The Grey Cat. Then it was Lavengro. Then it was Pride of Pendennis. This was followed by Lady Tregeagle. Then The Grey Cat returned from Liverpool. There were two barquentines,
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