Civil to Strangers by Barbara Pym

Author:Barbara Pym [PYM, BARBARA]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9780748128105
Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
Published: 2011-07-06T14:00:00+00:00

Gervase sighed and flung the novel he had been reading on to the sofa. He knew that he ought not to be reading a novel at all. He should be preparing a lecture on Samson Agonistes or at least be writing an intelligent letter to one of his far-away, unreal Oxford friends. The only reality nowadays was Finland and the Finns and even Flora, the most English of people, seemed to have taken on a curious quality, so that she said and did things she would never have done at home. He never opened a book now, except to divert himself with a novel or to look up a reference for a lecture. He had given up learning Swedish and Finnish. It was so much easier to speak English with Fru Lindblom and to be silent with Ingeborg. Somehow he didn’t need words with her. There was a curious bond between them, he felt, almost as though they could see into each other’s minds and knew that what was there needed no explaining. What actually was there Gervase didn’t know. He might be in love with her, he supposed idly. Gervase was a great believer in letting sleeping dogs lie. He had no idea that Ingeborg was in love with him. He thought that simply being a Finn was the reason for her strange, almost abrupt manner, her fits of moodiness and her fondness for reading Heine. But although he did not know that she loved him he had some understanding of her. He knew why she longed so passionately for spring. He was beginning to feel the effects of the Finnish climate upon himself. He wondered how it affected his aunt. He did not imagine that Miss Moberley would have enough sensibility to be affected by it. She would see it only as weather. She might dislike the rain – it had done nothing but rain for the past month – but she would miss altogether the curious leaden quality of the air, which Gervase felt was stifling him. Perhaps one grew used to it in time, though. He must remember to notice the people at Mr Boulding’s tonight.

This evening he was taking Ingeborg with him again. When they arrived they found Mr Boulding surrounded by the usual group of spinsters, including Miss Moberley, who was annoyed because Gervase had come without Flora. It almost seemed as if there might be something between him and the Lindblom girl. She would have to speak to him about it. Her temper was not improved when Flora arrived with Ooli, although she modified her disapproval when she discovered that he was a Count.

Flora took Ingeborg away into a corner and began a low murmured conversation with her, and Ooli went over to Miss Moberley, who made room for him upon the sofa where he sat very demurely with hands folded while Miss Moberley graciously asked him questions about his family. Glancing across the room, Flora was pleased to see that Miss Moberley was looking positively affable.

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