The Hollow

‘Yes, and she knows what to say.’

‘Ah,’ said Midge. ‘But it goes further than saying. Do you know, Lucy, that Henrietta actually knitted that pullover?’

‘Oh, my dear.’ Lady Angkatell looked grave. ‘And wore it?’

‘And wore it. Henrietta carries things through.’

‘And was it very dreadful?’

‘No. On Henrietta it looked very nice.’

‘Well, of course it would. That’s just the difference between Henrietta and Gerda. Everything Henrietta does she does well and it turns out right. She’s clever about nearly everything, as well as in her own line. I must say, Midge, that if anyone carries us through this weekend, it will be Henrietta. She will be nice to Gerda and she will amuse Henry, and she’ll keep John in a good temper and I’m sure she’ll be most helpful with David.’

‘David Angkatell?’

‘Yes. He’s just down from Oxford—or perhaps Cambridge. Boys of that age are so difficult—especially when they are intellectual. David is very intellectual. One wishes that they could put off being intellectual until they were rather older. As it is, they always glower at one so and bite their nails and seem to have so many spots and sometimes an Adam’s apple as well. And they either won’t speak at all, or else are very loud and contradictory. Still, as I say, I am trusting to Henrietta. She is very tactful and asks the right kind of questions, and being a sculptress they respect her, especially as she doesn’t just carve animals or children’s heads but does advanced things like that curious affair in metal and plaster that she exhibited at the New Artists last year. It looked rather like a Heath Robinson step-ladder. It was called Ascending Thought—or something like that. It is the kind of thing that would impress a boy like David… I thought myself it was just silly.’

‘Dear Lucy!’

‘But some of Henrietta’s things I think are quite lovely. That Weeping Ash-tree figure, for instance.’

‘Henrietta has a touch of real genius, I think. And she is a very lovely and satisfying person as well,’ said Midge.

Lady Angkatell got up and drifted over to the window again. She played absent-mindedly with the blind cord.

‘Why acorns, I wonder?’ she murmured.

‘Acorns?’

‘On the blind cord. Like pineapples on gates. I mean, there must be a reason. Because it might just as easily be a fir-cone or a pear, but it’s always an acorn. Mast, they call it in crosswords—you know, for pigs. So curious, I always think.’

‘Don’t ramble off, Lucy. You came in here to talk about the weekend and I can’t see why you were so anxious about it. If you manage to keep off round games, and try to be coherent when you’re talking to Gerda, and put Henrietta on to tame intellectual David, where is the difficulty?’

‘Well, for one thing, darling, Edward is coming.’

‘Oh, Edward.’ Midge was silent for a moment after saying the name.

Then she asked quietly:

‘What on earth made you ask Edward for this weekend?’

‘I didn’t, Midge. That’s just it. He asked himself. Wired to know if we could have him. You know what Edward is. How sensitive. If I’d wired back “No,” he’d probably never have asked himself again. He’s like that.’

Midge nodded her head slowly.

Yes, she thought, Edward was like that. For an instant she saw his face clearly, that very dearly loved face. A face with something of Lucy’s insubstantial charm; gentle, diffident, ironic…

‘Dear Edward,’ said Lucy, echoing the thought in Midge’s mind.

She went on impatiently:

‘If only Henrietta would make up her mind to marry him. She is really fond of him, I know she is. If they had been here some weekend without the Christows… As it is, John Christow has always the most unfortunate effect on Edward. John, if you know what I mean, becomes so much more so and Edward becomes so much less so. You understand?’

Again Midge nodded.

‘And I can’t put the Christows off because this weekend was arranged long ago, but I do feel, Midge, that it is all going to be difficult, with David glowering and biting his nails, and with trying to keep Gerda from feeling out of it, and with John being so positive and dear Edward so negative—’

‘The ingredients of the pudding are not promising,’ murmured Midge.

Lucy smiled at her.

‘Sometimes,’ she said meditatively, ‘things arrange themselves quite simply. I’ve asked the Crime man to lunch on Sunday. It will make a distraction, don’t you think so?’

‘Crime man?’

‘Like an egg,’ said Lady Angkatell. ‘He was in Baghdad, solving something, when Henry was High Commissioner. Or perhaps it was afterwards? We had him to lunch with some other Duty people. He had on a white duck suit, I remember, and a pink flower in his buttonhole, and black patent-leather shoes. I don’t remember much about it because I never think it’s very interesting who killed who. I mean, once they are dead it doesn’t seem to matter why, and to make a fuss about it all seems so silly…’

‘But have you any crimes down here, Lucy?’

‘Oh, no, darling. He’s in one of those funny new cottages—you know, beams that bump your head and a lot of very good plumbing and quite the wrong kind of garden. London people like that sort of thing. There’s an actress in the other, I believe. They don’t live in them all the time like we do. Still,’ Lady Angkatell moved vaguely across the room, ‘I dare say it pleases them. Midge, darling, it’s sweet of you to have been so helpful.’

‘I don’t think I have been so very helpful.’

‘Oh, haven’t you?’ Lucy Angkatell looked surprised. ‘Well, have a nice sleep now and don’t get up to breakfast, and when you do get up, do be as rude as ever you like.’

‘Rude?’ Midge looked surprised. ‘Why! Oh!’ she laughed. ‘I see! Penetrating of you, Lucy. Perhaps I’ll take you at your word.’

Lady Angkatell smiled and went out. As she passed the open bathroom door and saw the kettle and gas-ring, an idea came to her.

People were fond of tea, she knew—and Midge wouldn’t be called for hours. She would make Midge some tea. She put the kettle on and then went on down the passage.

She paused at her husband’s door and turned the handle, but Sir Henry Angkatell, that able administrator, knew his Lucy. He was extremely fond of her, but he liked his morning sleep undisturbed. The door was locked.

Lady Angkatell went on into her own room. She would have liked to have consulted Henry, but later would do. She stood by her open window, looked out for a moment or two, then she yawned. She got into bed, laid her head on the pillow and in two minutes was sleeping like a child.

In the bathroom the kettle came to the boil and went on boiling…

‘Another kettle gone, Mr Gudgeon,’ said Simmons, the housemaid.

Gudgeon, the butler, shook his grey head.

He took the burnt-out kettle from Simmons and, going into the pantry, produced another kettle from the bottom of the plate cupboard where he had a stock of half a dozen.

‘There you are, Miss Simmons. Her ladyship will never know.’

‘Does her ladyship often do this sort of thing?’ asked Simmons.

Gudgeon sighed.