The Eldest Son Part 38

"Do you mean we shouldn't be allowed to go to London at all?"

"Oh, allowed! We could go up for a day or two now and again--though if I know my respected parent there would be black looks even at that, if we did it too often--but as for anything more than that---- No, it's meant and it's intended to mean that I join the governor in business.

He's really, if you look at it properly, a farmer in a big way, and he's not very good at it, though he thinks he is. It's where I come in over d.i.c.k that he must have somebody to help him out of the muddles he makes, and that will be a pretty stiff job, and there won't be much running away from it."

"Then you mean we can't even pay visits?"

"Precious few of 'em. We shall be expected to stay at home and lead the domestic life. Are we cut out for it, Susan?"

She smiled at him, and slipped her hand into his. "I shan't mind very much, Humphrey," she said.

Humphrey returned her pressure. "Good girl!" he said. "I don't know that I shall either for a few years. But we'd better look it all in the face. We shall feel cut off, there's no doubt of it. But there's this to be said, it won't last for ever. If we're submissive now--well, in the long run we shall come off all right. Question is, can you make up your mind to stand it for as long as may be necessary?'

"I can if you can," said Susan.

"Oh, I shall be better off than you. I'm afraid there's no doubt you'll be dull at times. We'll have our own friends to stay with us, but there won't be much going on at home to enliven us. It isn't like other big houses in the country. Still, there are the kids. They're growing up, and they're pretty bright. You ought to get some fun out of them, and it'll be a G.o.dsend to them to have somebody like you about the place."

"I'm not certain that they care for me much," said Susan; "and I'm a little afraid of them. In fact, I'm rather afraid of all your family, Humphrey. Do you think Mrs. Clinton likes me?"

"Oh, of course she does," said Humphrey. "You'll get on well with the whole bunch of them. And as for the governor, you've only got to flatter him a bit and avoid treading on his corns, and you can live in his pocket--if you want to. I say, Susan, excuse my asking, but is your own papa all there?"

Susan laughed. "He has never grown up. That's all," she said. "But his tastes are harmless enough. Think what it would be if he had a taste for running after--well--er--you know--like Clinton. He doesn't really spend much money. There are worse fathers."

Humphrey digested this point of view. "Well, I think I would rather have mine," he said, "tiresome as he can be, and is, sometimes. Anyhow he's going to do the right thing by us. I needn't go into details, but you'll be able to have some pretty frocks, old girl; and you may find yourself in a big house before you've done, yet."

Their conversation was interrupted by the breaking up of the tea-party and the setting up of the bridge tables. Bridge was the serious pursuit at Thatchover, and it was only, so to speak, at off times that the household indulged in their tastes for romps. There was never any paltering with the valuable hours between five o'clock and eight o'clock in the evening, and there were few of the present party who showed any inclination to shirk their duty, even to the extent of sitting out a rubber. But as the total number of players was divisible by two, but not by four, two of them were obliged to sit out, and Lady Aldeburgh suggested to Humphrey that he and she should have a little talk and cut in later. "I hate doing it," she said, "because there's a certain sense of satisfaction in sitting down to begin, which you miss if you wait till everything is in full swing. Still, it would look well for me to appear self-sacrificing, and if you don't mind we'll get our little chat over now, for I'm dying to hear what you've managed to fix up."

Humphrey, sitting with her in a corner by the fire away from the green tables, put her in possession of the state of affairs. "There'll be at least fifteen hundred a year, and probably more," he concluded, "and that ought to make it good enough."

"If that were all, it wouldn't be good enough," said Lady Aldeburgh decisively. "You and Susan couldn't live on fifteen hundred a year or anything like it. I shouldn't consider it for a moment."

"Oh yes, you would," said Humphrey calmly. "Still, it isn't all.

We're to have a house, for one thing--a house more than half furnished, and there'll be all sorts of perquisites. I'm to go in for the land agency business; and by and by, if I behave myself, as I mean to, and Susan behaves herself, as _she_ means to do, we shall be very well off."

"What on earth are you talking about?" enquired Lady Aldeburgh, thoroughly bewildered. "The land agency business----'

"We are to live at the dower-house at Kencote," said Humphrey. "I don't think you saw it, but it's a topping little house. And I'm to help the governor look after things. That's the scheme."

"My _dear_ Humphrey! What absolute nonsense!" exclaimed Lady Aldeburgh. "You and Susan burying yourselves in the country! Why, you'd be bored stiff in a week, and you'd get sick to death of one another in a month. You can't seriously consider such a ridiculous scheme."

"Why ridiculous?" enquired Humphrey. "We're in the country at this moment, and we're not bored stiff--far from it."

"That's entirely different, a big house, with crowds of people whenever you want them--and in winter, when there's something for the men to do.

To settle down for good! and at a place like Kencote! Well, I don't want to be rude to your people, but I ask you, are they alive or dead?"

Humphrey flushed. "My people are all right," he said, keeping his voice level. "And Susan will get on with them. You needn't worry yourself about that side of the question."

"I can't help it if you are angry with me," said Lady Aldeburgh, with a slight recurrence to her infantile manner. "I say what I think, and although I have the greatest possible respect for your people, it would drive me crazy to live in the way they do. And I'm not going to let Susan be killed and buried and made miserable for life."

"All right," said Humphrey. "Then I'd better pack up and clear off."

"Oh, don't be silly. If you can screw a couple of thousand a year out of your father, with the little bit that Susan will have, which will pay for her frocks, you could take a nice little flat and be fairly comfortable. I shouldn't mind your waiting for the rest to come later."

"If I do that, the rest won't come later; it won't come at all. d.i.c.k has kicked over the traces, and I'm to take his place--to a certain extent. I don't want to think too much about all that, but you force me to say it. You understand the situation well enough if you'd give your mind to it. I don't want to bury myself in the country all the year round any more than you would; but, hang it! isn't it worth making some sacrifice for a time? Besides, it's such nonsense to talk as if living in the country, and living comfortably too, within three hours of London, were the same thing as going off to Siberia or somewhere.

Anyhow, we're going to live at Kencote. I'm game and Susan's game. We don't ask you to come and live with us."

"Now you're positively insulting," said Lady Aldeburgh, entirely recovering her good-humour, for this was the way she liked to be treated by good-looking young men. It implied that she appeared as young as she felt. "Of course if you have made up your mind to hoe turnips for the rest of your life, you naturally wouldn't expect me to come and hoe them with you, and I shouldn't come if you did. The question is, will Susan be happy hoeing turnips? That's what I have to look at."

"I dare say you will be pleased to do an occasional week-end's hoeing,"

replied Humphrey. "And as for Susan, I've already told you she's ready to hoe as long as is necessary. Please don't upset her about it. We are going to eat our bread and b.u.t.ter quite contentedly for a few years, and we shall get the jam by and by. If you put your oar in and try and upset things, we shan't get nearly so much bread and b.u.t.ter, and we shall miss the jam altogether. After all, it's a question for us to decide; and we've already decided. We're going to be a good little boy and girl, and if all goes well, by and by we shall be little county magnates. I believe that's the proper expression."

"What is your father going to do?" asked Lady Aldeburgh. "Let's put it quite plainly, as we are talking confidentially. Is he going to make an eldest son of you? Is d.i.c.k finally out of the way? I know he's going to marry Virginia Dubec in spite of everything. Does your father still refuse to see him--or to see her, which is more to the point, for I'm not a cat like some women, and I'll say this, that I believe if he were to see her she would get round him; for she's a beautiful creature and could turn any man round her little finger if she cared to try."

"She won't have a chance of trying with him," replied Humphrey. "You may make your mind easy as to that. As for d.i.c.k, I suppose he's seeing him at this moment. He was going down to Kencote this afternoon."

"What! Oh, then they've made it up?"

"No, they haven't. Neither side budges. d.i.c.k is going to marry Virginia, as you say, and d.i.c.k's father has sworn to leave all he can away from him if he does. Both of them will keep their word, for they're both as obstinate as the devil. But they are going to patch up a sort of peace, and I'm not altogether sorry. d.i.c.k hasn't behaved particularly well to me, and I should be a humbug if I pretended that I wanted him to get back what's now coming my way. But I don't want him to feel left out in the cold altogether."

"How very sweet and forgiving! Are you sure that he won't persuade your father to change his mind?"

"He won't try."

"How do you know that?"

"Because I know d.i.c.k."

"I suppose you wired to say you were coming down here because you didn't want to meet him?"

"I suppose I did. We might have had a row. I haven't done anything to persuade the governor to alter his will, as he's going to do, but it's going to be altered in my favour, and d.i.c.k might not feel inclined to do me justice over the matter. I don't want a row with him. We've been fairly good pals so far, and I don't want to be open enemies with him. Besides, Kencote will belong to him some day, and----"

"Well, when it does you won't be there any longer."

"Yes, I shall. I'm to have Partisham--that's pretty well settled.

There would be an explosion of wrath and surprise if I intimated that I knew that and was counting on it; but you can see the governor's brain working all the time. He lets everything out, and he's let out that.

It's only a question of one farm at present. I may get it with the rest, or it may go to Walter, for there's an old manor-house on it, and he thinks it would do for Walter to do up and live in when he gets tired of doctoring. He can't quite make up his mind, but it's only a hundred and fifty acres out of about two thousand, and it doesn't much matter one way or the other."

"Well, you seem pretty sure about it. I hope you may not be making a mistake. If I were d.i.c.k I should certainly have a try at getting back what he's lost. Where is this place you're going to have?"

"The house is about four miles from Kencote, and the property adjoins.

My great-grandfather bought it with money his brother left him, and some of it is good building land on the outskirts of Bathgate. I've never been inside the house; it's let to a doctor and used as a private lunatic asylum."

"That's pleasant!"

"It's a fine house, and the property is rising in value every year. I shall be a richer man than d.i.c.k before I've done."

"How mercenary you are! Well, I suppose it's all right, as you say so, and I must give my consent. Oh, look, there's a table up. Come on! I feel as if I'm going to win stacks."