The Reckoning (57 page)

Sophie smiled at the joke, but Mr Hobsbawn didn't seem to
have been attending, for he said, 'Have you, ma'am? Which
mill would that be?’

Agnes rolled her eyes at Sophie, and said, 'We've been to Brooke's Entry with Prudence, as I dare say she was telling
you – and a very horrid place it is. I hope you will persuade
Sophie never to go there again. It's all very well for Prudence,
who's a grown woman and as strong as a horse, but Sophie's
so young and pretty, she oughtn't to risk her health and
complexion in those filthy courts. Don't you agree, Mr Hobs
bawn?’

Mr Hobsbawn's eyes had been on Sophie's face all through
this speech, so he had had ample opportunity to assess the state of her complexion and to judge if there had been any
loss of bloom.

But he didn't directly answer Agnes. Instead he said gently,
‘So, you have seen the tenements. I think they will have been
worse than you expected.'

‘
They were – but why should you think so?' Sophie said.

‘
Because I should not like to think any gently-born woman
could imagine such squalor until she had seen it for herself.'

‘
You're quite right, Mr Hobsbawn,' Agnes answered for
Sophie. 'Pru had told me something of it, but nothing near the truth. I can't imagine why people go on living in such
places. For myself, I'd sooner lie under a hedge or in an open
field than in one of those courts.’

Again Mr Hobsbawn didn't directly reply to her comment.
Still looking at Sophie, he said, 'And now you've seen the
worst, have you resolved like a sensible person never to go
near such places again?'

‘
Oh no,' said Sophie quickly. 'I was shocked, and I must
confess I felt depressed when we came away; but most of all, I
felt pity for those poor people. Miss Pendlebury warned me
against feelings of despair, and I'm sure she is right. I feel
very strongly that I want to do something to help, only I
cannot immediately see what it should be. Everything is so
very bad, that I don't know what I could do that would be
useful.’

Jasper's eyes kindled through this speech. Now he smiled at
her warmly and said, 'I honour you! And I could shew you, if
you would allow me. It does seem beyond hope at first, I
know, but there is so much that can be done to help, and to
change things. Most of all, I wish you could persuade your
mother to think like you. In her position, she has the power to
make the greatest possible difference to the lives of those
people. If only you could draw her into our schemes –’

Our schemes! Sophie glowed inwardly at the words – never
had he seemed so approving of her. But she was obliged to
say, 'I'm afraid I have no influence with my mother.’

He looked faintly surprised. 'I'm sure you have,' he said, a
contradiction which would have been rude if it had not been
so obviously well meant.

‘
I've heard Maman talk disapprovingly about "interfer
ence", and I don't think she would care for your schemes. She
doesn't like Mr Owen, you know, because he is an atheist.'

‘
Oh, but my schemes are not quite like Mr Owen's! I am
not entirely convinced that everything he believes is right. If I
could explain my ideas to her in the right sort of atmosphere
– if you could just predispose her to listen sympathetically – I
believe she would agree that there is nothing to object to in
them.'

‘
But I don't even know whether she is going to keep the
mills or sell them,' Sophie said sadly, reluctant to spoil the
happy atmosphere between them. 'And then, you know, we
shall be going away very soon. Our visit was not meant to be
more than two weeks, and we have been here almost a month.
Maman won't want to stay away from Morland Place any
longer.’

Jasper looked very much taken aback. 'Going away,' he
said, and then muttered, as though to himself, 'I should have
realised – foolish of me.’

Agnes looked from his face to Sophie's with interest and a
dawning understanding.

‘
I wish you need not go,' Hobsbawn said at last.

‘
I wish it too,' Sophie said sadly, ‘but however, there's no
helping it.’

He looked at her keenly, hesitated, and then said, ‘I hope it is not because of – I have heard about the foolishness that has
arisen over the matter of your supposed inheritance.’

Sophie lowered her eyes, embarrassed, not sure what it was
proper to say on that head, especially in front of Agnes.

‘
And Mr Farraline has gone away as well, I understand,'
Jasper went on, scanning her face. 'That must have been
distressing for you. I am sincerely sorry you should have been
so much hurt, when everyone expected – when you must have
expected –’

Sophie looked up. 'Oh no,' she said quickly. ‘You are quite
mistaken! Mr Farraline did not – that is, I was not hoping for
an offer from him. Indeed, I rather dreaded that he might
make me an offer, for I was not at all in love with him.'

‘Not in love with him?' Jasper said wonderingly.

‘
No,' Sophie said, and a smile crept into her eyes. 'Nor with
any of the others. It is shocking to have unkind things said
about one, but on the whole I'm rather glad than sorry, not to
have those young men crowding round me all the time. They
were so very noisy and distracting.’

Mr Hobsbawn suddenly looked very much more cheerful.
‘Mrs Droylsden,' he said, 'would you not say that is a remark
able preference for a young woman?'

‘
Yes, I would,' Agnes agreed vigorously. 'But then Sophie is
not just in the usual style.’

*

Sophie returned to Hobsbawn House feeling much more at
peace with the world than when she set out, though it would
have puzzled her to say precisely why. On the journey back, she
discussed with Prudence the cases they had seen that day, and
made plans for further visits during the few days she had left.

‘
Oh I wish I did not have to go home,' she said more than
once. 'There is so much to be done here.’

As the hour was growing late, the other two dropped her off at the house without coming in, promising to call again the next morning. Sophie ran upstairs to the morning-room
and found her mother there, looking rather weary.

‘
Oh Maman, do we have to go back to Morland Place so
soon?' she asked when she had told about her experiences that
day.

‘
Do you like it here so much, then, my Sophie? I'm
surprised,' Héloïse said. 'But I have to go back – I can't bear
to be away from your Papa and the boys any longer. And you
cannot stay here without me,
fa se volt.
It would not be
proper.'

‘
What, even if Alice stayed with me?' Sophie asked, though
without any real hope.

‘
Of course not. You are only nineteen,
chérie.
Think what
people would say if you lived alone without a chaperone. It
would be most improper. Not at all –’

Comme il faut,'
Sophie finished for her.

Héloïse smiled. 'I was going to say
bon ton!
But what a pity
it is there has been this silly trouble, for I expect before it
happened Mrs Pendlebury would have been happy to invite
you to stay with her for a few weeks.'

‘
Yes, but then you know you wouldn't have been happy for
me to stay,' Sophie said mischievously, 'because of all the
foolish young men dangling after me. Now I am not regarded
as a match, I am much safer here.'

‘
I'm glad you are able to laugh about it, my Sophie. But
still, you cannot stay here alone, so there is no help for it.’

Sophie sighed. 'And if you sell the mills, we won't ever
come again, will we? Do you mean to sell them, Maman?'

‘
I don't know. I must tell everything I have learned to your
father, and then he will decide what is best to be done. It is
not something I can decide alone.’

They went to the concert that evening, by invitation of the
enormous Audenshaw family, who were numerous and
wealthy enough not to need Mrs Pendlebury's approbation.
Mrs Pendlebury was there, accompanied by Fred, Lady Grey
and Miss Grey, and casting particularly dark and glowering looks across at the Audenshaw box, which the Audenshaws
feigned not to notice. Sophie remarked that none of the
Droylsdens was present, and that Miss Pendlebury was not in
her mother's box. She hoped that her friends had taken no
infection from the benevolent visiting.

The next morning explained all. The Droylsden barouche
arrived very early, while Sophie and Héloïse were still at
breakfast, and Agnes was announced alone.

‘
Oh, Lady Morland, I'm glad you're still here, for I particu
larly wanted to talk to you. I must tell you the news first –
and very shocking it is, but really for the best all round, as
I'm sure you'll agree! It's about Prudence –'

‘
Is she well?' Sophie asked quickly. 'I noticed she was not at
the concert last night.'

‘
No, she was at my house. Oh such fun, you know! There
was the most dreadful quarrel when I took her home, after
leaving you here. Mama was there, and asked where we hadbeen, and when we told her she was so angry –'

‘
Should you be telling us this?' Héloïse interrupted uncom
fortably.

‘
Oh yes, ma'am – you'll see why in a moment. Well, Mama
was angry that Prudence had gone sick-visiting – though
she's never forbidden her to do it, you know, so Pru didn't do
anything wrong – and she said she'd never get a husband if
she did such things, instead of making herself agreeable to the
right people. So Prudence said – well, however, I won't tell
you all the things that were said, for one way and another it wasn't agreeable in the least. But the end of it was that Prud
ence said she wouldn't give up doing what she felt she was
called to do, and Mama said in that case she was no daughter
of hers, and she could find herself another roof to live under.'

‘
Good heaven! She could not mean it!' Héloïse said,
shocked.

‘
Lord, no ma'am! She'd have taken it back when she got
over her temper. For all that she's never liked Prudence very
much, she wouldn't cast her quite out of doors. But Pm
didn't want her to take it back, and nor did I. I said at once
that she could come and live with me, and Mama said she
might do as she liked, and so it was settled.'