Excellent Women (Penguin Classics) by Barbara Pym

Author:Barbara Pym [Pym, Barbara]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2006-12-26T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

On my way home, I was just passing the vicarage when Julian Malory came out.

‘Congratulations,’ I said, ‘I’ve just heard your news.’

‘Thank you, Mildred, I wanted you to be among the first to know.’

I felt that the ‘among’ spoilt it a little and imagined a crowd of us, all excellent women connected with the church, hearing the news.

‘I had lunch with Mrs. Gray,’ I explained.

‘Ah, yes.’ He paused and then said, ‘I thought it would be better, easier, more suitable, that is, if you heard the news from her.’

‘Oh, why?’

‘Well, for one thing I thought it would be nice if you got to know each other better, become friends, you know.’

‘Yes, men do seem to like the women they know to become friends,’ I remarked, but then it occurred to me that of course it is usually their old and new loves whom they wish to force into friendship. I even remembered Bernard Hatherley, the lay-reader bank clerk, saying about the girl he had met on holiday in Torquay, ‘You would like her so much—I hope you’ll become friends.’ But as I had been at home in my village and she had been in Torquay the acquaintance had never prospered.

‘Well, yes, naturally one likes everybody one is fond of to like each other,’ said Julian rather feebly.

‘Yes, of course,’ I agreed, feeling that I could hardly do otherwise. ‘I expect Winifred is very pleased, isn’t she?’

‘Oh, yes, although she did once say that she hoped—I wonder if I can say what she hoped?’ Julian looked embarrassed, as if he had said more than he meant to.

‘You mean . . .’ I did not quite like to go any further.

‘Ah, Mildred, you understand. Dear Mildred, it would have been a fine thing if it could have been.’

I pondered on the obscurity of this sentence and gazed into my basket, which contained a packet of soap powder, a piece of cod, a pound of peas, a small wholemeal loaf and the Hawaiian Fire lipstick.

‘It’s so splendid of you to understand like this. I know it must have been a shock to you, though I dare say you weren’t entirely unprepared. Still, it must have been a shock, a blow almost, I might say,’ he laboured on, heavy and humourless, not at all like his usual self. Did love always make men like this? I wondered.

‘I was never in love with you, if that’s what you mean,’ I said, thinking it was time to be blunt. ‘I never expected that you would marry me.’

‘Dear Mildred,’ he smiled, ‘you are not the kind of person to expect things as your right even though they may be.’

The bell began to ring for Evensong. I saw Miss Enders and Miss Statham hurrying into church.

‘I’m sure you’ll be very happy,’ I said, my consciousness of the urgent bell and hurrying figures making me feel that the conversation should come to an end.

But Julian did not appear in any hurry to go.

‘Thank you, Mildred, it means a great deal to me, your good wishes, I should say.

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