Read Online The Last and the First by Ivy Compton-Burnett - Free Book Online Page A

note of weariness.
    â€œThe man whom you call Uncle is your real uncle, isn’t he?” said an older girl, using a mild tone to ease the admission. “He is really your grandmother’s son?”
    â€œYes, of course he is. What else would he be? He is her ordinary legitimate son. I said he was not because I was ashamed of him. As I am really ashamed of everything.”
    Amy had reached the end of her capacity for suffering and was impervious to further cause for it. The girls accepted the feeling of shame as a natural part of life, but glimpsed unusual grounds for it and carried things no further.
    â€œYou look tired, Amy,” said Jocasta, as they reached home. “It is standing about with nothing in your hands or your head. You get no good out of vacancy.”
    â€œNo, perhaps not, Grannie,” said Amy, accepting the account of her afternoon without surprise.
    â€œHow will you feel if the school is given up and you have to go to another?”
    â€œI am not sure, Grannie,” said Amy, seeing no prospect of real change unless all schools met this fate.
    â€œMiss Heriot stands by herself,” said Hamilton. “And not only in a literal sense. She is indeed an unusual figure.”
    â€œOh, she is not a tragic one,” said Jocasta. “She has a home and a family. And would do better to return to them.”
    â€œThey may be where the trouble lies, Mamma. In a sense they could be the seat of it.”
    â€œWe will not waste our thought on her. She will not waste hers on us. Nothing is being done for Amy there. And if one of the women has not made an end of the school the two of them will. We will not talk about it. We will not talk about anything. I am worn out and fit for nothing. I must ask for silence.”
    She leant back and closed her eyes; Hamilton tiptoed from the room; and Osbert began to murmur under his breath.
    â€œShe can’t have quite what she asks. We must hear what Amy has to tell.”
    â€œIt is nothing,” said Amy, in the same manner. “Or nothing you would understand.”
    â€œWas it everything?” said Erica, in a tone that denoted understanding.
    â€œYes it was,” said Amy, in one that accepted it. “I mean it was what Grannie said.”
    â€œCould you voice it?” said Osbert. “Even that would be better shared.”
    â€œShe said I was moved by the sight of this dress. And that I never had any money.”
    â€œI hope that was all. It seems to comprise everything.”
    â€œNo, it was not. She has asked the girls to tea.”
    â€œHere?” said Erica, on a higher note.
    â€œHere,” said Osbert. “It is the unlikely that happens.”
    â€œThere is nowhere else,” said Amy. “It doesn’t seem so very unlikely. And the likely really happens oftener.”
    â€œIt is true. There is no escape. It comes under either head.”
    â€œThere is something else,” said Amy, with a faint smile. “Uncle Hamilton said he would be here. He talked to the girls himself. But he matters less than Grannie.”
    â€œWell, he would. She is built on a larger scale.”
    â€œDid I or did I not ask for silence?” said Jocasta. “What would this incessant muttering be called? And what are you saying about me?”
    â€œThat you are built on a larger scale than Uncle Hamilton,” said Erica.
    â€œWell, I may be. I daresay I am. My sons were not equal to me. There is often an outstanding member in a family. But there is no reason why she should be harried to death. You know what I have asked for, and you know I will have it.”
    As the hush fell, Amy leant back and rested her head on her hand, an attitude that caused her grandmother to frown, though it resembled her own and came from similar feelings.
    â€œAmy, try to look as if you were alive. There is no reason for this exhausted pose. You have had a great deal done for you to-day. Your afternoon has