assemblies and so forth, her father will consider that I have failed him and will not further my career. I ask you! Did you ever hear such nonsense? She forgets that, if my mother had not been anxious for us to meet Oliver Erskine, our wedding trip would have been a month in Paris. And now—well, now she chooses to see me as a sort of … of ambassador, no less, from Hewitt, Flood & Hewitt to India. All she talks of is my “position” and her “position” and what people here will “expect” of us. But I can’t make her see reason. She’s just … just childish! Absurd! As though all there is to marriage is a house of one’s own and servants and a carriage and a calling list as long as your arm. But she’ll have to learn. And it looks as though I’ll have to teach her!’
‘Yes,’ I concurred heartily. ‘But leave me out of these lovers’ quarrels!’
‘Lovers!’ he exclaimed, rising suddenly from his chair and going to look out on the dark and aromatic garden with averted face. There was an odd note of bitterness in his voice. I had the impression that he was about to speak again, but after a pause he returned to his chair and said in his normal voice, ‘Yes, I’ll have to do something about it. She’s lying on her bed now like a baby, pouting and crying and saying that if she had known how disagreeable it was to be married, she would have stayed a spinster like you.’
‘Oho,’ I chuckled, ‘that convinces me that she is really angry! She has never envied me my lot before.’
‘No. But she thinks now her father sent you out with us to “keep her in her place”, if you please. Says everyone at home always treated her like a child and you continue to now she’s married. She even hinted that you and I are in league in this matter of the house—that you realize that it would be your “duty”—mark the word—to act as housekeeper and that you wouldn’t care for that since it would make you look “inferior”. I tell you, Laura, I cannot understand the way her mind works.’
‘I believe I am beginning to,’ I answered. ‘She is just trying her strength—with you, with the world, with me. I felt from the beginning that she resented me travelling with you, and I certainly don’t blame her. At sea I had more than a hint of it in her manner, and things she said and the way she said them. It seems to me that she can only feel secure in her place by putting me in mine. But cheer up, Charles. I have no intention of allowing myself to be ill-used by Emily or anyone else. We must both remember that she is very young, after all, and rather spoilt, and has had too much change too suddenly.’
‘Perhaps,’ he said, again in that bitter tone of voice, ‘perhaps she has not had enough change.’
‘What do you mean?’ I asked, puzzled.
‘Oh, nothing. Just words.’
We sat in silence for a time, the tip of his cigar glowing intermittently in the darkness. I felt his nearness acutely, and felt too that there was more he wished to say, that he was debating within himself as to whether to make some disclosure to me. I realized that my love for him, and my sensitivity to his needs, enabled me to guess this. I did not fight the knowledge; it was enough that I could hide it.
‘I must be patient,’ he said at length. ‘But when I remember how sweet-natured and, well, biddable she was at first! It was what made me fall in love with her even more than her beauty. Her sweet temperament. But, as you say, she is very young, and I must just go on being … patient.’ Once again I knew that ‘patient’ was not the word that conveyed his true meaning.
Emily sweet-natured and biddable? Truly, love is blind!
I had a swift mental image of the young virago with whom I had so often had to deal from the time she was ten years old: fists clenched, foot stamping, face red with fury until she had her way. We had given in to her too often, that was the real trouble. Neither her four older brothers nor her
‘Yes,’ I concurred heartily. ‘But leave me out of these lovers’ quarrels!’
‘Lovers!’ he exclaimed, rising suddenly from his chair and going to look out on the dark and aromatic garden with averted face. There was an odd note of bitterness in his voice. I had the impression that he was about to speak again, but after a pause he returned to his chair and said in his normal voice, ‘Yes, I’ll have to do something about it. She’s lying on her bed now like a baby, pouting and crying and saying that if she had known how disagreeable it was to be married, she would have stayed a spinster like you.’
‘Oho,’ I chuckled, ‘that convinces me that she is really angry! She has never envied me my lot before.’
‘No. But she thinks now her father sent you out with us to “keep her in her place”, if you please. Says everyone at home always treated her like a child and you continue to now she’s married. She even hinted that you and I are in league in this matter of the house—that you realize that it would be your “duty”—mark the word—to act as housekeeper and that you wouldn’t care for that since it would make you look “inferior”. I tell you, Laura, I cannot understand the way her mind works.’
‘I believe I am beginning to,’ I answered. ‘She is just trying her strength—with you, with the world, with me. I felt from the beginning that she resented me travelling with you, and I certainly don’t blame her. At sea I had more than a hint of it in her manner, and things she said and the way she said them. It seems to me that she can only feel secure in her place by putting me in mine. But cheer up, Charles. I have no intention of allowing myself to be ill-used by Emily or anyone else. We must both remember that she is very young, after all, and rather spoilt, and has had too much change too suddenly.’
‘Perhaps,’ he said, again in that bitter tone of voice, ‘perhaps she has not had enough change.’
‘What do you mean?’ I asked, puzzled.
‘Oh, nothing. Just words.’
We sat in silence for a time, the tip of his cigar glowing intermittently in the darkness. I felt his nearness acutely, and felt too that there was more he wished to say, that he was debating within himself as to whether to make some disclosure to me. I realized that my love for him, and my sensitivity to his needs, enabled me to guess this. I did not fight the knowledge; it was enough that I could hide it.
‘I must be patient,’ he said at length. ‘But when I remember how sweet-natured and, well, biddable she was at first! It was what made me fall in love with her even more than her beauty. Her sweet temperament. But, as you say, she is very young, and I must just go on being … patient.’ Once again I knew that ‘patient’ was not the word that conveyed his true meaning.
Emily sweet-natured and biddable? Truly, love is blind!
I had a swift mental image of the young virago with whom I had so often had to deal from the time she was ten years old: fists clenched, foot stamping, face red with fury until she had her way. We had given in to her too often, that was the real trouble. Neither her four older brothers nor her
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