The Present and the Past by Ivy Compton-Burnett

Author:Ivy Compton-Burnett
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2013-12-26T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 8

‘Well, what is the news, Mr Ainger?’ said Madge.

Ainger crossed the kitchen with a slow tread and his eyes on the ground, and paused with his hand on his chair before he took his seat.

‘News?’ he said, raising his eyes.

‘Yes. What is there to tell?’

‘There is nothing that asks to be told, Madge.’

‘We have suffered a sense of anticipation,’ said Kate.

‘It pleases him to keep things to himself,’ said Halliday.

‘I don’t think thought of self has entered in,’ said Ainger, drawing in his brows. ‘There are cases where it does not.’

‘Are there?’ said Mrs Frost.

‘Was it for nothing that Simon was excluded from the dining-room?’ said Ainger, with more force. ‘Was it an indication or was it not?’

‘We hope it was,’ said Madge. ‘What did it indicate?’

‘That things were not for eyes and ears, except in cases.’

‘So did nothing happen?’ said Halliday.

‘Happen?’ said Ainger, turning fully to him. ‘You would not expect incidents to take place?’

‘I think we half expected it,’ said Kate. ‘Things might have given rise.’

‘The gentry are themselves,’ said Ainger, ‘as you are aware.’

‘So I was,’ said Mrs Frost.

‘Human beings like all of us,’ said Halliday.

‘No, Halliday,’ said Ainger, gently, ‘not quite like that.’

‘Did the two ladies address each other?’ said Kate. ‘That seems a salient point.’

‘You use the word, Kate. “Ladies”. More is superfluous.’

‘What were you doing all the time?’ said Halliday.

‘What I could do. Being a friend to them in my own way.’

‘Well, be a friend to us in ours,’ said Madge.

‘There must have been a good deal of waiting to be done,’ said Simon.

‘Being a friend to them in their way,’ said Halliday.

‘Well, that was my duty, Halliday,’ said Ainger, simply.

‘England expects it of everyone,’ said Kate, sighing.

‘Ah, we know it, Kate,’ said Ainger. ‘You are correct in your figure.’

‘There is a strain of what is higher in all of us,’ said Kate.

‘But it is a pity it comes out in Mr Ainger just now,’ said Madge.

‘I suppress it in myself,’ said Mrs Frost, ‘for fear it should be too high.’

‘I am sorry if you meant to make a Roman holiday of it,’ said Ainger. It does not appeal to me in that light.’

‘Can you eat anything?’ said Mrs Frost, with her lips grave.

‘Well, it has taken it out of me. It could not be otherwise.’

‘Well, when you have put it back into you,’ said Madge, ‘I hope we shall see the result.’

Her hope was realized as far as could be expected. Ainger followed her suggestion, and then sat up and looked about him.

‘Well, it was a human scene. Human nature was writ large. And it is a thing that makes its appeal. I have always been struck by it.’

‘But what was said and done?’ said Madge.

‘Nothing of a nature to be passed on. But much. It was a contradiction in terms.’

‘Well, tell us what you can,’ said Halliday.

‘Greetings were exchanged,’ said Ainger; ‘remarks were passed; convention was pursued. But there was nothing that made for disclosure. It was the outward and visible sign.

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