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VI A CHASTISEMENT AND A TEA PARTY

MAURIRICE HAD SETTLED down quite comfortably into the life of home, with his mother and his two small brothers. Now he seldom had the lost feeling that had made heavy the first days of his return. But, when it did come upon him, he was submerged by it, drawn down by a painful longing for the ordered life of Glengorman, the love of old Dermot Court, the intellectual companionship of his middle-aged tutor, the congenial friendship of Patrick Crawshay. He liked his great-uncles but either they talked of their past in the social life of London, discussed the complications at Jalna, or worried about their nephews who were taking part in the War. After the first few visits to them, Maurice found them rather boring. His cousin Patience was a nice girl but she was interested only in outdoor things and in preparations for the removal from Vaughanlands to the small house. She and her mother were always busy. Intellectually Patience was years younger than he, yet she was rather superior in her attitude toward him and had a way of making fun of him that was very amusing to her and her mother but was disconcerting to Maurice.

The problem of his education loomed large in his thoughts. A perusal of the University curriculum and the examinations necessary, made it clear that in the classics, in the study of English and French and in ancient history, he was far in advance of what was required but, in mathematics and science, far behind. It would be necessary for him to be crammed but the thought of entering a cramming school was repugnant to him. He would have to find a capable tutor but where to find him he did not know. They seemed either to be at the war or already engaged in teaching. However, Maurice was willing to drift for a time. The fact that he would have independent means contributed to his natural indolence. He had a generous allowance and so was able to do pleasant things for his mother, for which Pheasant was touchingly grateful. He would bribe his brothers to be obedient and otherwise behave themselves.

On this Saturday morning when she was at Jalna helping to nurse Adeline, Maurice was examining a large packet of books for which he had sent to the town. He had promised each of the small boys twenty-five cents for washing the dishes and making the beds. But they seemed to be possessed by the idea of doing everything with as much confusion and noise as possible. Maurice shut himself in the living room with his books but nothing could shut out their noise, their giggling and scuffling. He went out to them.

“Do you boys,” he demanded, “want me to give you those quarters or don’t you?”

“We do,” they yelled in unison.

“Then stop this row and get on with your work.” He returned to the living room.

There was a short interval of quiet, then noise and laughter broke out again. Maurice laid down his book and marched back to the kitchen. Nooky was washing the cutlery, Philip drying it and as he dried each knife, fork, or spoon, he flung it across the room onto a table. Nooky was in a state of helpless laughter, spilling more water on the floor than he expended on the cutlery.

“Stop it!” shouted Maurice. He caught Philip by the collar and gave him a shake. Philip flung the silver tablespoon he was drying at Nooky and hit him on the head, sending him into hysterical squeals of mirth.

“Here comes the Irishman!” shouted Philip. “He’s a holy terror, bedad and he is!”

Nooky leant against the edge of the dishpan, overturning the water on his own legs and the floor. Philip tore himself from Maurice’s grip and ran through the open door into the yard. Here were scattered half the contents of a tool chest which Pheasant had forbidden him to touch. He ran over these and into the tool house and tried to slam the door behind him. But Maurice had caught him. As he held his young brother in his grasp, Maurice felt only cold anger but when he got a sharp kick on the shin it changed to primitive rage.

“Bend over!” he ordered.

“I won’t!” yelled Philip, kicking him again. “I won’t — I won’t! Mother!”

But mother was far away. Maurice heaved him across a work table and, picking up a short piece of lath, belaboured him where the trousers were drawn tight across his seat. Philip’s howls were such that a young man who at that moment was turning in at the gate, hastened to the tool house in alarm. He stopped when he saw what was going on.

“I’m sorry,” he apologized, backing away, “I thought something was wrong.”

Maurice laid down the stick. Philip stopped screaming and rolled over. Maurice, his cheeks flushed, came forward.

“Just a little necessary discipline,” he explained, and he looked enquiringly at the visitor.

He was a young man of about twenty-eight, fair-complexioned, prepossessing and self-assured. He said, “I wonder if you are Maurice Whiteoak?”

Maurice nodded gravely. “I am,” he agreed.

“My name is Sidney Swift. I’m Mr. Clapperton’s secretary. I was talking to your sister, Mrs. Vaughan, yesterday and she told me you are wanting a tutor. Now I believe I could fill the bill. I joined the RAF but I had a crash while training. I was discharged and came back to Canada. I’ve been secretary to Mr. Clapperton for two years. I have a good deal of spare time and he is quite willing to let me take on some part-time job, so that I can add to my income. I’m afraid I’ve appeared at rather an inauspicious time.”

“Come into the house,” said Maurice, “and we’ll talk about it.” He led the way into the living room and offered his visitor a cigarette from his case that once had been Dermot Court’s.

When they were seated Maurice remarked, “I’ve never spanked anyone before and I must say it’s a delicious sensation.”

“The next time you do it I hope you’ll invite me to be present. I’ve never witnessed a more spirited domestic scene. What had he been up to?”

“Making an infernal row doing the dishes. There’s another one of them in the kitchen. Will you excuse me while I speak to him?”

Maurice found Nook meekly collecting the cutlery. He said, with severity, “That’s right. And clean up the floor when you’ve finished the dishes. Then make your bed and mine. When you’ve done I’ll give you your quarter. If I have any nonsense from you, you’ll get just what I gave Philip.”

Nook hung his head and applied himself to his task.

Seated again beside Sidney Swift, Maurice told him of his difficulties in preparing himself for the University.

“I’m sure I can help you,” said Swift, and he briefly outlined the work they would take up.

“I suppose you’re very glad to be back in Canada,” he went on. “Life in Ireland must have been pretty tame for you.”

“It suited me very well. Still, of course, I am glad to be with my mother again.”

“Well, for my part,” said Swift, “I’ve no use for the Old World, except as a curiosity. This is the country for opportunity for the young man. Mr. Clapperton was deploring the destruction of all those ancient buildings and works of art but I said, ‘Let them be destroyed. We don’t need them in this modern world. They’re out of date and they may as well go.’ Don’t you agree?”

Maurice laughed. “I expect,” he said, “that each one of us will drift to the place that suits him best.”

The telephone rang. It was Pheasant speaking.

“Are you boys getting on all right?” she asked.

“We’re getting on splendidly.”

“No trouble with Philip?”

“None to speak of. How is Adeline?”

“Poor child, she had a very bad night but she’s quieter this morning. However, I must stay on. Alayne is completely exhausted”

“How is Archer?”

“He’s getting on well. But Alayne has worried herself ill over the pair of them.”

“What a pity. Look here, Mummy. Mr. Swift is here and he and I have talked things over. He’s Mr. Clapperton’s secretary and he’d be willing to coach me. He’s a Rhodes scholar and very nice. Are you agreeable to it?”

“Why — yes. But first find out what he asks. Don’t consent to just anything — as though we were millionaires.”

“Oh, no ... Anything I can do to help?”

“No, thank you, dear, except to carry on at home. Tell the children to be good.”

“Yes, I will.”

Maurice returned to his guest. Soon they had made their arrangements. Maurice agreed to the remuneration asked by Swift. It was not in him to haggle. When Pheasant returned home and learned what the fee was she thought it excessive. Still, it would be paid by Maurice’s solicitors, so she need not worry.

It was fortunate that the fall work was over before the illness of the children. Archer was brought home in a few days but remained in bed for another week and after that he was ailing and irritable for a fortnight. Three weeks of suffering passed before Adeline was able to be up. Then she had become thin and her pallor was such that her hair and eyes were shown in striking contrast. But, where Archer had been difficult to nurse, she was amenable and deeply conscious that she had, by her own fault, brought all this weariness upon her mother. She would ask for her needs in a small sweet voice; she would catch Alayne’s hand in hers and press it to her lips. She would catch Alayne’s skirt and say, “Little Mother,” in a cajoling voice. It was almost as though Renny were holding her by the skirt and saying, “Little Wife.” They’re a pair, thought Alayne. There is nothing of me in the child.

Roma was constantly helpful in those days. Perched on the side of Archer’s bed she played Halma or Parcheesi with him and, when he was able to be up, set out his lead soldiers and engineered campaigns. Whatever went wrong he blamed her for it. She ran endless messages to the basement, carried up glasses of milk and fruit juice. She hastened home from school to be on hand to help. Alayne was grateful for this, but it drew them no nearer together. Alayne’s eyes often rested on Roma’s face, sometimes seeing on the childish lips the resemblance to dead Eden’s smile, sometimes in her slanting eyes the very look of Minnie Ware. It was curious that Alayne seldom spoke to Roma as to a child. She might reprove her but it was as a grown-up, in a superior position, might reprove another grown-up. Roma in return spoke to Alayne in a cool self-possessed tone.

Meg and Patience had removed from Vaughanlands to the small house. Fortunately Mr. Clapperton had been glad to purchase some of the large furniture that for three generations had stood in the Vaughans’ home. Meg was able to make the small house look very attractive indeed. Patience was clever with window curtains and cushions. They were very happy and quite reconciled to the change in their situation. In truth Meg found herself with less responsibility and more means for the pleasures of life than she had enjoyed for many a year. She liked Mr. Clapperton and looked forward to the day when his affluence might be added to the support of the church built by her grandfather. Mr. Clapperton was at present a Christian Scientist but Meg looked on this as only a phase in his life. He had been born a Presbyterian but had joined the Christian Science denomination soon after his marriage. If he had changed once he might change again. Already Meg had introduced him to Mr. Fennel, the rector, and the two men had got on well together.

One day Mr. Clapperton accompanied her to tea at Jalna. It was a dark wet day toward the end of November. As they alighted from the car he paused to look up at the old house, and the old house seemed to gather itself together to look at him. There was open admiration in his eyes as he raised them to the walls which were of a peculiarly rose-red brick closely interlaced by the tendrils of the stout Virginia Creeper, now bereft of its leaves save for a few bright scarlet ones in the shelter of the eaves. Spirals of smoke rose from several of the five chimneys and mingled with the gently falling rain. Firelight could be seen reflected on the ceiling of the drawing-room. Inside the deep stone porch, the heavy door was scarred by the pawings of many generations of dogs. On Mr. Clapperton the house seemed to reserve judgment. It appeared to draw itself together as though saying, “You’re a bird of a new feather. I’ll not say what I think of you — not yet.”

The door was ceremoniously opened by Rags who that morning had had a very close hair cut and in consequence looked a hardened little criminal.

“Good afternoon, Rags,” said Meg. “I think my uncles are expecting us. I hope they are well.”

“They are indeed expecting you, ma’am, and as well as can be looked for in this weather. Mr. Nicholas’ knee is pretty bad.”

He escorted them to the drawing-room which seemed to Mr. Clapperton quite full of people. All fixed their eyes enquiringly and critically on him. “Can this old gentleman be ninety?” thought Mr. Clapperton. “He certainly doesn’t look it.” He said, “Your niece, Mrs. Vaughan, has talked a lot about you to me, sir.”

They shook hands. Ernest was favourably impressed. He saw a man a little past middle age and middle height, fresh-coloured, with light enquiring eyes and thin grey hair carefully brushed. He wore spats, a pale grey suit and an air of businesslike friendliness.

“Excuse me. Can’t very well get up,” mumbled Nicholas. “Gout. Had it for years.”

“Too bad, too bad,” sympathized Mr. Clapperton. “I gathered from your niece that your health is not very good.”

“Perfectly good otherwise,” growled Nicholas.

Ernest put in, “Have you met my niece, Mrs. Piers Whiteoak? Pheasant —”

She interrupted, “Oh, yes, we’ve met. Long ago.”

Meg brought forward Finch and Wakefield. They were almost of a height but Wakefield appeared the taller, with the straightness of his training on him and the proud carriage of his head. There was a look about his mouth that showed he had known great fatigue, and a look in his eyes of one used to risking his life. The air force blue of his uniform made his skin a little sallow. Meg was proud of them both and, with that air, introduced them to the visitor, explaining the fact that Finch was not in uniform by saying:

“Finch is a concert pianist. He has made a tour right across the continent.”

“Isn’t that fine?” said Mr. Clapperton.

“Troops too much entertained. Too little trained,” growled Nicholas.

“This is my youngest brother, Wakefield,” said Meg.

“He has lately arrived on a short leave, on his way to England.”

“You’ve been an actor in London, I hear,” said Mr. Clapperton as he shook hands with him.

“Bad actor, from the first,” added Nicholas.

“We are very proud of him,” said Ernest. “He has been given the Distinguished Flying Cross by the King, for gallantry.”

“Too many decorations in this war,” said Nicholas, winking at Wakefield.

“And here,” cried Meg, “is your own young man, Mr. Swift, and our nephew, Mooey, whom he’s tutoring.”

Mr. Clapperton was not entirely pleased to find his secretary already at Jalna. He was a good-natured man but he had a firm idea of his own importance. He gave Sidney Swift a frosty smile. Then his face lighted as he looked about the room. He exclaimed:

“May I remark on the beauty of your furniture? I thought I had some nice pieces! But these!” After an admiring contemplation of the well-polished Chippendale, he added, on a deeper note, “And to think that just such pieces as these are being bombed!”

“Yes, isn’t it terrible?” said Meg.

“Too much old stuff in the world,” growled Nicholas. “World cluttered up with antiques — material and human. Isn’t that so, Mr. Swift?”

“I quite agree,” cried the young man. “I often say —” but, after a glance from Mr. Clapperton, he did not say what he often said.

At this moment Alayne entered the room with the air of elegance that always distinguished her. The party was now complete and, after welcoming Mr. Clapperton, she sat down behind the tea tray which Rags had just carried in. The new neighbour sat near her while the four young men busied themselves in carrying about teacups and plates of thin bread and butter and cakes. Mr. Clapperton remarked sympathetically to Alayne:

“I hear you have had two very ill children.”

“Yes. My little son had his tonsils taken out. It was an unusually bad case but he is better now, I’m thankful to say.”

“Tonsils,” said Nicholas, “just disappear naturally if you leave ’em alone. Mine did.”

Ernest said, “I sometimes think my health would be better if I’d had mine out.”

“It’s not too late. Have ’em out next week.”

“And your little girl,” said Mr. Clapperton to Alayne, “is she better?”

“Thank you, she has quite recovered. She is a very strong child.”

Nicholas heaved himself in his chair, so that he faced Mr. Clapperton. “Now I want to know,” he said, “why you should choose to live in the country. You strike me as a man absolutely of the town.”

“Not at all, sir,” Mr. Clapperton spoke a little huffily. “I’ve always had the ambition to end my days on a country estate where I could play at being farmer.”

“Life in the country isn’t what it used to be, you know. Help question’s terrible.”

Mr. Clapperton smiled. “I plan to use modern business methods. Everything up to date. Wages to tempt the most experienced men. Oh, I have many plans!” He gave a silent chuckle. “I’ll surprise you by what I’ll do.”

“My father,” said Ernest, “used to employ twenty men at Jalna. Farmhands, gardeners; we had our own carpenter’s shop — our own smithy.”

“And cheap labour, I’ll bet,” returned Mr. Clapperton. “Those were the days!”

“Certainly,” said Meg, “we now have to scrabble along as best we can. I’m thankful to see Vaughanlands in the hands of someone who has the money to run it properly. I’ve had enough of making shift.”

There was a silence in which Nicholas noisily supped his tea. Mr. Clapperton gave him a quick look, then turned to Maurice. “So you are the young gentleman my secretary is teaching.”

“Well, he’s trying to, sir. I’m afraid he finds it pretty heavy going at times.”

Pupil and tutor exchanged smiles. “This lad,” said Swift, “has been mentally submerged by the classics. I’m doing what I can to bring him to the surface.”

“And a mighty unpleasant surface it is,” said Finch gloomily.

“Just wait till we get the rubbish cleared away.”

“Meaning our kind,” said Nicholas, putting a small muffin whole into his mouth.

“Oh, no, Mr. Whiteoak. I mean the accumulation of outworn tradition.”

“Description answers perfectly,” growled Nicholas, through the muffin.

“People like you,” put in Mr. Clapperton, “have been the backbone of this country.”

“Very handsome of you to say so.”

“Development and change are necessary,” said Ernest, “and I always like to feel myself in the forefront of such.”

“Good man!” said his brother.

Meg now brought the conversation to personal affairs, from where it led quite naturally to the financial difficulties of the church. Mr. Clapperton was sympathetic but showed no disposition to offer financial aid. Before he left he expressed a wish to see the other rooms on the ground floor. A group progressed into the library and dining room. Mr. Clapperton might have been a connoisseur of old furniture, to judge by the profound expression with which he stood before each piece. But the truth was he knew little and gave his rapt attention to things of no value, such as the ugly and ornate whatnot which stood in a corner of the library, its shelves covered by photographs, papier mâché boxes and Victorian china ornaments. But, when in the dining room, he stood before the portraits of Captain Philip Whiteoak and his wife, Adeline, his enthusiasm increased, if that were possible.

“There,” he exclaimed, “is what I call a perfect example of a gallant English officer!”

Captain Whiteoak, blond and bold in his Hussar’s uniform, looked unconcernedly over their heads.

Meg said, “My brother Piers, the one who is a prisoner in Germany, is the image of Grandpapa.”

“And you should see my little boy, Philip!” cried Pheasant. “The likeness is remarkable.”

“As an officer,” said Nicholas, “my father was overbearing to his inferiors, insubordinate toward his superiors and was never so happy as when he got out of the army.”

“And what a striking woman your mother was!” exclaimed Mr. Clapperton, rapt before the other portrait.

“Right you are,” agreed Nicholas. “She’d hit any one of us over the head as lief as look at us.”

When the guests had gone, Meg asked, “Now what do you think of my Mr. Clapperton?”

“I think,” said Nicholas, “that he’s a horrid old fellow.”

“Do you indeed? Then what is your feeling about that good-looking secretary of his?”

“I think,” returned Nicholas, filling his pipe, “that he’s a horrid young fellow.”