Men and Wives (24 page)

“It would never do for us all to say it at that length, when we were told to bid God-speed!” said Geraldine.

“It is allowable to be without words,” said Kate in a low, deep tone, as she followed them.

“Sir Godfrey,” said Dominic, “my fellow-guests have taken their stand upon the assumption that something may
be said from the much welling up within us. I am aware that anything must strike you in the light of hopeless inadequacy, and I will not burden you with the feelings inevitably aroused in a heart which has beaten during these months in tune with yours. I will simply say that I am thankful to see restored to you that which I myself have lost.” After his congratulation Dominic turned and stumbled with bent head from the room.

“May I stay a little while with Griselda? I promise I will not talk,” said Bellamy.

“Yes, yes, do, my boy,” said Godfrey, going to the fireplace. “Well, I think the play and everything went off well. My dear children!” He turned and held out his arms. “You don't know what to say, and I understand it. I hardly know myself. I am not surprised that you are dumb. I shall say to your mother, ‘Your children stood in silence to hear the news of your return. Their hearts were too full for words.' And indeed it is too much to come at once. I felt it was. If I had known this evening that our lives were to need readjusting in a moment, I could not have welcomed my guests with the easy hospitality that I showed them. I do not think I fell short with them, either when I welcomed them in, or when I came in and gave them the tidings in my own way? That is a moment that would not have left your memories. But if anyone understands your being without words, it is I.”

“That is generous of you, as you are so different,” said Gregory.

“It is a wise and provident theory,” said Griselda.

“Neither on this occasion nor on any other can we fall short,” said Jermyn. “And the worst of reunions is the falling short. Reunions are perfect without it. Mother must feel that our tongue-tied welcome is a proof of our worth.”

“We shall have to give an account of our stewardships,” said Matthew.

“Matthew!” said his father on the moment. “Do you
insinuate that everything has not gone on in your mother's absence as if she had been with us?”

“You were ready to fit on the cap,” said Matthew.

“Indeed I was not. You read into others the fabrications of your own mind. I blush for you, Matthew. It almost seems that your own conscience is not clear.”

“We shall go on our way without a shadow,” said Gregory.

“My dear boy, you will,” said Godfrey. “My dears, we have clung together during these last months. We shall hold as closely in the time of test that is ahead of us. For all changes bring demands. We shall be equal to them by aiding and abetting each other, by uniting to aid our lost one to regain her foothold. Ah, sickness laid her low. Our wife and mother will return to us, and in spite of our being left without her guidance, will not find us wanting.”

“With the help of silence,” said Jermyn.

“I am glad to hear that definitely, Father,” said Matthew.

“I state it definitely, Matthew.”

“I wish you were the parson instead of me, Haslam,” said Bellamy.

“Well, I have had some little practice in speaking at times. You know I have a service every morning for my household. I think they have got to depend on it. Yes, well, we all do our little part. You must go, must you, Ernest? I will see you out.”

“Mother will be back again,” said Gregory, smiling to himself. “I have felt lately that she would.”

“You have taken Dufferin's hints,” said Jermyn. “The rest of us waited for the actual words. Certainty is the only thing that counts.”

“Dufferin's hints counted,” said Matthew. “That is why he used them with such care. He saw we needed to come by stages to certainty. We have not really taken the leap.”

“This is the scene of our welcome of Mother's recovery,”
said Griselda. “They say that such scenes fall short in actual life, so we may perhaps feel that this is up to the average.”

“Poor Father does not dare to return from the hall and settle down to the future,” said Matthew.

“That means nothing,” said his sister.

“It may mean more than that,” said Matthew.

“Oh, Mother will come home more herself,” said Jermyn.

“Anyhow she will come home,” said Gregory. “It is no good to give any thought to the occasion. All our little private preparation will be wasted.”

“I always wonder about this self of Mother's that we hear so much of,” said Matthew. “We have never had a chance of seeing it. She may not have more than one self, any more than the rest of us have. And if she has not——”

He left the room as his father returned to it.

“Come, My Harriet, come, my girl, come to your home. Step across the threshold back into your old life. The other is nothing but a dream. There, you are back in your own nest. Your children are coming to welcome you, hurrying as fast as their limbs can carry them, to welcome their mother home! Yes, yes, kiss your mother, my sons. Give her a greeting as if she had only been away for a little time. That is all it is. Well, I see you all together again. I have looked for this moment as I have looked for no other in my life. I declare to you, Harriet, that if anyone had asked me what I would take to give it up, I should have said, ‘Nothing'. Nothing would have induced me to relinquish what I have been living for for months. For it has been that, my dear; not a little while, as I said just now. You know that now, my brave girl. There is nothing you can't face.”

“Well, my darlings, you have a welcome for me? You can give me that, though I have been away so long. It has been a long while. I have had to learn that lately. And you have known it all the time, my poor ones, known it as the days dragged by. Now you can have your mother's sympathy.”

“Months of arrears of it,” said Jermyn, keeping his arm round his mother.

“You are right to get to work at once,” said Griselda. “There is much to be done.”

“We are going to have the whole made up,” said Gregory. “We shall not rebate a jot of it.”

“My darlings!” said Harriet, turning her eyes to her eldest son.

“Congratulations on being back, Mother,” said Matthew. “It is a tremendous thing.”

“Tremendous! Yes, that is the word tremendous,” said Godfrey, his eyes resting for a moment on Matthew. “Tremendous. Matthew has it there.”

“And I am to have another son and daughter to welcome me. I have come back richer by two more children. Father has given me the news, and he has asked them in a message from me to be with us to-night. That is to be my first pleasure. My darlings, I have come back to love and care for them. The truest welcome for those who love you, is your mother's.”

“Camilla says she can't bear to think you have had no chance to disapprove of our engagement,” said Matthew, making an effort just within his power.

“Ah, she is doing Matthew good, Harriet. You will see that she is,” cried Godfrey, turning a glow of appreciation on his son.

“I trust they will do us credit to-night,” said Griselda, who was holding her hands clenched. “If they fall short on one evening, what of the future?”

“The future is yours and theirs, my sweet one,” said her mother. “I will go now and rest and change my things. What a pleasure, with my girl to help me! I must take pains to be at my best to-night. People who have had to wait for a mother-in-law must not be put off with anything, and neither must people who have had to wait for a mother. I must remember it, and go on remembering it. How I will!”

“Well, what do you think of it, Matthew?” said his father. “What do you say to the way things are turning out for us? She is a great, noble woman, your mother, a strong, fine creature with a great heart, when she is herself. That has been our little trouble, that she has not always been herself. That was why we found a sort of misgiving creeping over us. It was a fear lest she might not come back in her true colours. But she has come back in them, ready to give us of her best. A thorough breakdown has done her good; a suspension of energy was what
she needed, what her system craved, my poor wife, your poor mother! I am ashamed of my petty, self-regarding qualms. I blush for my fears and finickings about what was in store for my precious self. As if it mattered, as long as she came back safe and sound! As if it was worth a brass farthing!”

“It was nothing to worry about, if your theories are true,” said Matthew.

“Matthew, you do not take up a position of doubt! I can hardly believe it. It seems to me too far beneath you. Well, Griselda, you have come from your mother? You have had the post we should all have liked to fill. And you have filled it worthily, I make no doubt. Mother has found you a comfort. Ah, that is a thought we would share.”

“She is going to rest and arrange her room. Catherine is with her. She seems wonderfully well. I have never seen her in such spirits.”

“Ah, my poor child, you have never known your mother. But, please God, you will know her now. Our previous knowledge and love of her will be as nothing. I declare it will be something to see her greeting Ernest and Camilla. That has become a thing to look forward to.”

“Dear Lady Haslam, it has been such a blight on my happiness, that you were not here to cloud it,” cried Camilla, at the moment for Godfrey's anticipations to be realised. “I know so well that it ought to be clouded. Even a fresh piece of goods would not be worthy of Matthew—I know ‘piece of goods' is how you think of me—and I am so shop-soiled. Mother was in such a fright at sending me here to-night, an article in its third season! She can feel for you in your bargain. She knows what it is.”

“Well, I am soon to know it, and I hope I can help to make this season the last one. My dear, I have only one feeling for the woman who loves my son.”

“There, you see, Camilla. You see how it is,” said Godfrey. “Matthew's mother has simply the feeling for you
that she has for all her children. She and I hold out our arms to you as a daughter, standing side by side, as we have not had the chance to stand these many months past.

“You look adorable, doing it. Matthew and I are the feeblest imitation of you.”

“Well, you are not the only pair of lovers in the room.”

“They are useful for showing you up,” said Griselda. “I shall soon be seen in that office myself.”

“Yes, we shall have another couple with us in a moment,” said Godfrey, “another pair to show us up. I declare I almost feel that is what they do. Buttermere, you know that Mr. Bellamy is dining?”

“Everything is as usual, Sir Godfrey, except for the return of her ladyship.”

“Ernest often comes in to dinner, does he?” said Harriet.

“Yes, yes, as often as Griselda wants him. Often is the word,” said Godfrey. “I tell you we have been glad of a little outside society sometimes, Harriet. We didn't want to be left alone with our thoughts. That wouldn't always have done for us.”

“My poor ones!” said Harriet.

Bellamy came in with his smile grave.

“I shall hold my head very high, Lady Haslam. I have had the most coveted thing in the neighbourhood, a glimpse of you. You will always be more valuable for your time away from us. It is hardly as it ought to be, as you did less than nothing for us by having it. I could not forgive it, if you were not going to give me Griselda in compensation.”

“Yes, I am going to give her to you. I have come home to a larger family. And as my family is all the world to me, I cannot have too much of it.”

“Won't you let me have just a little point in myself? I am sure Griselda thinks I have.”

“Ah, you can't fish for compliments to-night from
Griselda's mother,” said Godfrey. “She is my province. We haven't any attention over for you.”

“I find it hard to do my duty to Matthew, with the spectacle of his parents before me,” said Camilla.

“Ah, we none of us have thoughts for anyone but you, Harriet,” said Godfrey. “You see, Camilla is one of us there. Jermyn, I have not heard many words from you about your mother's return.”

“That is not only brutal but unjust,” said Jermyn. “You talk as if the others were engaged in continual oratory. And you promised us that silence should be the approved vehicle of our feelings.”

“Harriet, you would have wept to see your children when I told them of your recovery. They stood as if petrified, their feelings passing their capacity and leaving them turned to stone. I had to hold myself. I could have fallen on their necks weeping.”

“It was not a case of like parents, like children,” said Griselda.

“And now you find fault with silence,” said Gregory.

“Godfrey dear, it is almost too much for me,” said Harriet, touching his arm.

“My darling, I am an idiot, I am without judgment. We will talk about our children's other side, the ambitions and successes you have come home to share with them.”

“Indeed, you will not,” said Jermyn. “Having borne one reference to myself, I will suffer no more. And our baser side would be even harder on Mother than the other.”

“What is the good of referring to the better one, if you are going at once to counterbalance it?” said Matthew.

“Ah, my dear children, it was not that you had no words to speak. It was that your hearts were too full for words.”

“Well, now, leave it at that, and don't contradict it again,” said Griselda.

“How soon can I have my first little private talk with you, Mother?” said Gregory.

“When would you like it, my darling?”

“To-morrow after breakfast in the garden,” said Gregory.

“You shall have it, my boy. We none of us grudge it to you,” said his father. “We don't forget the old days, when you so often took that on yourself. Ah, you have established your right to it, Gregory.”