Parade's End by Ford Madox Ford Read Free Book Online Page B

the Father’s wit to give her daughter’s insolence a run for its money, and she imagined that if the priest hit hard enough he might, at least, make Sylvia think a little about some of her ways.
    ‘Hang it, no, Sylvia,’ she exclaimed more suddenly. ‘I may not be much, but I’m a sportsman. I’m afraid of hell fire; horribly, I’ll admit. But I don’t bargain with the Almighty. I hope He’ll let me through; but I’d go on trying to pick men out of the dirt – I suppose that’s what you and Father Consett mean – if I were as certain of going to hell as I am of going to bed to-night. So that’s that!’
    ‘“And lo! Ben Adhem’s name led all the rest!”’ Sylvia jeered softly. ‘All the same I bet you wouldn’t bother to reclaim men if you could not find the young, good-looking, interestingly vicious sort.’
    ‘I wouldn’t,’ Mrs. Satterthwaite said. ‘If they didn’t interest me, why should I?’
    Sylvia looked at Father Consett.
    ‘If you’re going to trounce me any more,’ she said, ‘get a move on. It’s late, I’ve been travelling for thirty-six hours.’
    ‘I will,’ Father Consett said. ‘It’s a good maxim that if you swat flies enough some of them stick to the wall. I’m only trying to make a little mark on your common sense. Don’t you see what you’re going to?’
    ‘What?’ Sylvia said indifferently. ‘Hell?’
    ‘No,’ the Father said, ‘I’m talking of this life. Your confessor must talk to you about the next. But I’ll not tell you what you’re going to. I’ve changed my mind. I’ll tell your mother after you’re gone.’
    ‘Tell me,’ Sylvia said.
    ‘I’ll not,’ Father Consett answered. ‘Go to the fortunetellers at the Earl’s Court exhibition; they’ll tell ye all about the fair woman you’re to beware of.’
    ‘There’s some of them said to be rather good,’ Sylvia said. ‘Di Wilson’s told me about one. She said she was going to have a baby… . You don’t mean that, Father? For I swear I never will… .’
    ‘I daresay not,’ the priest said. ‘But let’s talk about men.’
    ‘There’s nothing you can tell me I don’t know,’ Sylvia said.
    ‘I daresay not,’ the priest answered. ‘But let’s rehearse what you do know. Now suppose you could elope with a new man every week and no questions asked? Or how often would you want to?’
    Sylvia said:
    ‘Just a moment, Father,’ and she addressed Mrs. Satterthwaite: ‘I suppose I shall have to put myself to bed.’
    ‘You will,’ Mrs. Satterthwaite said. ‘I’ll not have any maid kept up after ten in a holiday resort. What’s she to do in a place like this? Except listen for the bogies it’s full of?’
    ‘Always considerate!’ Mrs. Tietjens gibed. ‘And perhaps it’s just as well. I’d probably beat that Marie of your’s arms to pieces with a hair-brush if she came near me.’ She added: ‘You were talking about men, Father… .’ And then began with sudden animation to her mother:
    ‘I’ve changed my mind about that telegram. The first thing to-morrow I shall wire: “
Agreed entirely but arrange bring Hullo Central with you
.”’
    She addressed the priest again:
    ‘I call my maid Hullo Central because she’s got a tinny voice like a telephone. I say: “Hullo Central” – when she answers “Yes, modd’m”, you’d swear it was the Exchange speaking… . But you were telling me about men.’
    ‘I was reminding you!’ the Father said. ‘But I needn’t go on. You’ve caught the drift of my remarks. That is why you are pretending not to listen.’
    ‘I assure you, no,’ Mrs. Tietjens said. ‘It is simply that if a thing comes into my head I have to say it. You were saying that if one went away with a different man for every week-end… .’
    ‘You’ve shortened the period already,’ the priest said. ‘I gave a full week to every man.’
    ‘But, of course, one would have to have a home,’ Sylvia said, ‘an address. One would have to fill