The English Tutor (15 page)

“
You oughtn
’
t to wear
‘
em at all,
”
Conn laughed, pulling her hair.
“
Shorts and shirts for you, you little tomboy. She
’
s delightfully unfeminine, isn
’
t she, Cromwell?
”

Mark regarded him gravely.

“
No, I don
’
t think so,
”
he replied.

Clodagh stuck out her tongue at Conn and said:
“
Snubs!
”
and Clancy, looking a little bewildered, turned her attention to the lunch and avoided Mark
’
s eye.

After they had eaten, they lay about in somnolent attitudes until it should be time to bathe. Clodagh said she wanted a fire on which to boil shrimps for tea, and Conn sent Brian and Clancy to collect driftwood. Brian soon tired of this occupation, however, and retired to his cave again.

Mark, propped against a rock a little apart, watched them lazily; Conn and Clodagh stretched out side by side, sparring indolently as they had probably done in childhood. Mark could imagine them as children, the two elder ones lording it together while the young Clancy fetched and carried for them both.

She came back now with another load of driftwood and flung it down on the first pile.

“
What about showing me the shells?
”
she said.

“
Not now,
”
Conn replied.
“
I
’
m too lazy. Why don
’
t you go and find them yourself?
”

She stood for a moment, a slight, uncertain figure with a moment
’
s fleeting grace, then she turned and wandered away by herself along the shore.

Mark did not know what prompted him to get up and follow her, unless it was something a little forlorn about that small figure in the faded cotton frock. For no adequate reason he felt annoyed with Conn and Clodagh.

“
Will you show me where these shells are?
”
he said, catching her up.

She looked surprised to see him and a little of the earlier radiance of the day had gone out of her face.

“
Conn knows,
”
she said indifferently.
“
There are a lot of little pools further along. They
’
re quite often there.
”

They walked on together in silence, Clancy a little embarrassed by his company. But she forgot him in the delight of exploring the warm rock pools which had been left by the receding tide. He watched her with interest. Unwonted colour flushed her high cheek-bones, and her young unpainted mouth was tender with delight. Her face had a quality, he reflected idly, which her prettier cousin
’
s entirely lacked. In a year or two there would be no need for her to feel her bones and remark:
“
How queer.
”

She began to whistle, true, effortless notes as clear as a blackbird
’
s.

“
Do you know what that is?
”
he asked with surprise.

“
What? Oh, the tune. I heard it on the wireless.
”

“
It
’
s the third movement from Beethoven
’
s Pastoral Symphony.
”

“
Is it? I
’
ve never learnt music.
”
She sounded uninterested.

“
You remember it perfectly. Do you listen much to good music?
”

“
Oh, yes—in the evenings, often. I like the English proms.
”

His eyes twinkled.

“
So you do admit to liking something English.
”

“
Music,
”
she said severely,
“
is international. Do you think we could bathe now?
”

He glanced at his watch.

“
I should think so. Let
’
s go back to the others.
”

“
It was nice of you,
”
she said unexpectedly as they walked back along the sands,
“
to let us have this holiday.
”

“
We
’
ll have another while your cousin is still here,
”
he replied kindly.

Clodagh had already changed into her smart green bathing suit when they returned. She and Conn looked as though they had been quarrelling.

Conn tossed Clancy
’
s bathing things over to her.

“
Go and change,
”
he ordered.
“
I see you still favour that striped atrocity you had when you were fourteen. Ask Cousin Clodagh to hand you one of her cast-offs. Hurry up and get your things off—I
’
ll race you to the breakwater. You were always a better swimmer than Clodagh.
”

“
And a better rider, too, I suppose,
”
sai
d
Clodagh.

“
And a better rider, too. Besides, she can look after herself, which is always a help.
”

“
A great help. Mark will look after me,
”
said Clodagh sweetly,
“
won
’
t you, Mark?
”

CHAPTER SIX

THE fine weather held for the entire week of Clodagh
’
s visit, and there were more picnics, sometimes with Mark, and sometimes with the three of them alone. Agnes had put her foot down on the matter of Brian joining these expeditions unless his tutor was present, and although the boy had taken no harm from his first day
’
s bathing, she was always on the watch for chills.

Sometimes, when Mark and his charges were doing their work in the schoolroom, Clodagh would row herself over the loch to Slievaun, but she was too lazy to go very often, and bored with no one to talk to, she would come to the schoolroom and listen to Mark teaching, until he politely but firmly turned her out.

“
Even you, pussycat, can
’
t divert the excellent Mr. Cromwell from his duty.
”
Kevin chuckled.

He was fond of his niece. She had pretty ways and he was more indulgent to her than he ever would have been with his daughter.

“
A bit of a minx,
”
he told Mark.
“
Clodagh
’
s more of an O
’
Shane than either of my two. They take after their mother and all the Macnamara crowd.
”

Yes, Mark reflected, Clodagh should have been Kevin
’
s daughter. He would have understood her far better than he did his own.

“
Why don
’
t you let Clancy go back to Dublin with her for a while?
”
Mark suggested.
“
The change would do her good.
”

“
Clancy go to Dublin?
”
exclaimed Kevin with surprise.
“
And why on earth should I send the girl to Dublin? The last time she went up for Horse Show week, my sister Kate bought her a lot of fine clothes and nearly ruined me, and look at them now. Not a thing fit to put on, as I
’
m always telling her.
”

“
How long ago was this?
”

“
How long ago? Let me see, it must have been two years.
”

Mark suppressed a smile.

“
Two years. Clancy would have been fifteen. I think she may possibly have grown out of those clothes, Mr. O
’
Shane.
”

But Kevin would not hear of it. It would be an extra expense, and time wasted just as the child was be
ginning
to get on with her studies, and Clancy herself did not like Dublin. He was not going to have the girl running round with a pack of strange young men and coming home discontented, and, like her cousin, unable to make up her mind to settle down.

“
I tell you what,
”
Kevin said.
“
Later on you can take them both to Dublin for a couple of nights—go to a theatre, see the shops. Part of their education, and a bit of a break for you. How would that be?
”

Mark agreed that it would be a change, but he privately thought that from Clancy
’
s point of view it would not be the same thing at all.

He asked her one day on a return visit to Kinross Sands if she would not like to have gone home with Clodagh.

“
Not really,
”
she said, wrinkling up her forehead.

“
Why not?
”

“
I can
’
t quite explain. Here, at Kilmallin, we
’
re all of us as we used to be as children. We
’
re the same. In Dublin Clodagh has a lot of new friends, and she
’
s different somehow. We don
’
t fit in in Dublin. Conn went last year and he didn
’
t like it either. He said Aunt Kate looked down her nose at
him,
and made him feel rustic.
”

“
Yet he
’
s going again in a week or so. I heard him tell your cousin.
”

“
Is he?
”
For a moment
’
Clancy looked a little hurt that they had neither of them troubled to tell her.
“
Conn has to go up on business now and again. He
’
ll be glad enough to be back.
”

They had arranged a last picnic for the day preceding Clodagh
’
s departure, and Mark had granted another holiday. But the fine weather broke by the afternoon and heavy rain kept them all in the schoolroom. Mark left them to play nursery games until tea-time, when he rejoined them at Clodagh
’
s exp
r
ess invitation.

He thought they all seemed a little disgruntled, and Brian looked as if he was starting a cold.

“
Happy Families,
”
said Mark, looking at the well-worn cards flung on to the floor,
“
I used to have a passion for that.
”

“
You should have stayed and played with us,
”
Clodagh said.

“
It
’
s no fun if you cheat,
”
said Clancy from the window-seat.

“
Clodagh always cheats.
”
Conn, lying full length in an easy chair, spoke with lazy malice.

“
Clodagh always did, and I was never allowed to. Bother my nose, it
’
s starting to run.
”
Brian spoke fretfully.

Clodagh powdered her face and looked with satisfaction at her reflection in the mirror.

“
Tomorrow night I
’
m going to a dance,
”
she observed;
“
I shall wear white and a flower in my hair.
”

“
I wish we had dances here,
”
said Clancy, and Mark gave her an amused glance.

“
I didn
’
t know you had leanings towards the social life,
”
he said.

“
Oh, I haven
’
t. But I
’
d like to see Clodagh all dressed up,
”
she replied simply.

He found her disinterested admiration for Conn and her cousin a little touching.

“
How sweet,
”
said Clodagh, putting on lipstick.
“
Mark,
do
make Brian blow his nose.
”

“
I haven
’
t got a handkerchief,
”
complained Brian.

Mark sat down beside Clancy on the window-seat.

“
Then you
’
d better fetch one,
”
he observed.

“
Oh, all right. Only the more I blow, the more I have to blow. It
’
s much better to sniff.
”
Brian banged out of the room.

“
Agnes will have your blood if he
’
s really got a cold,
”
remarked Clancy.

“
How can it be Mark
’
s fault?
”
asked Clodagh, still plying her lipstick.
“
Conn, you
’
re awfully dull. You just sit and gloom. Can
’
t you say something?
”

“
What I want to say,
”
returned Conn sourly,
“
is for goodness
’
sake stop putting all that muck on your face. You make me sick.
”

“
Don
’
t look, then,
”
Clodagh retorted, quite unmoved.
“
Why are you so fed up today?
”

Conn slouched lower in his chair.

“
Oh, I don
’
t know. The weather, I expect, and things generally. Breeding horses is a terribly chancy business.
”

“
But everyone feels like that, sometimes,
”
said Clancy, her voice coaxing.
“
It
’
s just the luck of the game, and you
’
re doing quite well.
”

“
I
’
ll never do well at Slievaun, the soil
’
s too poor. Daley was right. I should sell up and go.
”

“
But where would you go? There are no farms going this side of the loch.
”

Conn looked straight ahead, frowning at Clodagh.
“
Sometimes I think I
’
ll give up horses altogether and start afresh,
”
he said, and Mark felt Clancy stiffen beside him.

“
But, Conn, what would you do? Horses are your life,
”
she said in a shocked voice.

Conn moved impatiently.

“
Ah, that
’
s nonsense. I
’
m young, I could start again. Go to the cities perhaps, or even America.
”

Mark glanced down at the girl, and the sudden anguish in her face made him say quickly:

“
I don
’
t suppose Conn is really serious. We all like to have a grouse and consider other possibilities, you know.
”

Clancy hardly heard him.

“
Oh, no,
”
she cried,
“
no, Conn! You could never like cities, and America
’
s so far away. Conn, you won
’
t—you won
’
t, will you?
”

“
Ah, why should you care?
”
he said crossly.

Clodagh put her lipstick and compact away at last.

“
It would be the same anywhere, Conn darling,
”
she said sweetly.
“
You
’
re just lazy.
”

Conn
’
s blue eyes flashed.

“
And how do you suppose I
’
ve made such money as I have?
”
he said in a raised voice.

“
Not by working. When you were young you spent all your time being an Irish patriot and filling us up with a lot of wild ideas, and who did the mucking out? Who took horses to be shod? Who did all the dirty jobs you never had time for yourself? Clancy
’
s been your stooge all your life, and the poor little idiot is grateful for it.
”

Clancy sprang to her feet.

“
Stop it, Clodagh! Stop it!
”
she cried, and her voice shook.
“
Why are you so beastly to Conn these days? What
’
s happened to us all? Nothing
’
s the same now, nothing, and I hate the both of you!
”

With the tears pouring down her face, she ran out of the room, slamming the door violently behind her.

There was a moment
’
s silence, then Clodagh threw her cigarette end into the grate and remarked with a sigh:
“
You
’
ll get used to our quarrels, Mark, they soon blow over, although they usually end with Clancy being sick.
”

“
I should have thought in that case you might have tried to avoid them,
”
said Mark mildly.

“
Och, she never minded really. That
’
s one good thing about Clancy, she soon gets over things. All
families
quarrel, anyway, and we
’
re practically one family.
”

“
Of course all families quarrel,
”
said Mark,
“
but perhaps you sometimes forget that Clancy is a good bit younger than either of you, and rather more sensitive, I think. Ah, here
’
s the tea. I
’
ll go and see if Clancy wants some.
”

They came back to the schoolroom together, their arms entwined. Clancy
’
s eyes were swollen but she smiled cheerfully upon the company.

“
Have you been sick?
”
asked Conn.

“
Yes,
”
she said,
“
but I
’
m hungry now. Conn, you won
’
t really
—”

“
Och, forget the whole thing, you silly child,
”
he said, pulling up a chair for her.
“
Pit down now and butter my baps for me, like you always do.
”

With a little sigh, she slipped into the chair beside him and began to butter a bap.

Mark and Clancy took Clodagh to the station the next morning. It was raining again, although the night before had been one of bright stars. The beauty of it still remained with Clancy, just as music sometimes remained with her, colouring the everyday hours of daylight.

She had gone to Clodagh
’
s room to say good night, and had sat at the open window watching the stars as they talked over the past week. She could see a light in the tower room and wondered vaguely what Mark did when he got away from them all. There was a light, too, in Conn
’
s farmhouse across the loch. It moved from room to room like a small firefly. That would be Bridie turning down the beds while Conn made his last rounds of the stables.

“
Clodagh, do you think Conn was serious this afternoon—about selling up, I mean?
”
she asked in a thin, disembodied little voice.

Clodagh, already in bed, was leaning towards the lamp, filing her nails.

“
Oh, you know Conn. He talks a lot,
”
she said carelessly.
“
At one time it was republican nonsense, now it
’
s a fortune he wants.
”

Clancy drew her old dressing-gown closer round her slight body.

“
I don
’
t think Conn wants a fortune,
”
she said, watching the light.
“
He never was very ambitious, except for Ireland, and even that
’
s all gone.
”

“
And a good thing, too,
”
said Clodagh briskly.
“
Ireland
’
s found her independence and young hot-heads, like Conn used to be, only make for trouble. Damn these lamps! I can
’
t see a thing.
”

The light across the loch remained steady. Conn would be coming to bed now.

“
We seem to be different,
”
Clancy said.
“
This visit specially. Things have changed.
”

Clodagh seemed concentrated on her nails.

“
We
’
re growing up, Clancy.
”

“
I know. I don
’
t like it.
”

“
You can
’
t fight it. Everybody
’
s got to do it.
”

“
I didn
’
t mean that. I don
’
t think I
’
ve changed. It
’
s you and Conn who are different.
”

“
You haven
’
t caught us up, that
’
s all.
”

The light in the tower room went out.

“
You like our tutor, don
’
t you?
”
said Clancy, changing the subject.

“
Of course. Why, don
’
t you?
”

“
He
’
s—he
’
s so
English
.”