The Mighty and Their Fall by Ivy Compton-Burnett Read Free Book Online Page B

know why you think so.”
    â€œIt might be a definition of a young family. Childhood can be a troubled time.”
    â€œThe fashion has changed. It used to be the happiest of our lives. Perhaps the truth lies in between.”
    â€œIt may lie anywhere. And where it is, it often stays.”
    â€œDoes wisdom lie here?” said Selina, smiling at Ninian. “The problems of your household may be safe in these hands.”
    â€œThey will not be in them. They are nothing to do with her. She is to be my wife, not the mother of children who are not hers, and the rectifier of mistakes she has not made. That would be a wrong demand. And it seems I have done enough wrong. It is each other we want, not what we can claim from each other. That must be clear.”
    â€œWell, it is, my son,” said Selina.
    â€œDo all men have two wives?” said Leah’s voice. “I mean before they die.”
    â€œNo, of course not,” said Miss Starkie. “But when they lose the first wife, they sometimes have a second.”
    â€œBut they would always like the first one best?”
    â€œNo, it would depend on many things.”
    â€œThe first would be the real choice,” said Hengist.
    â€œI would never be a second,” said Leah. “I wonder she agreed to it.”
    â€œI wonder she did,” said Ninian. “I am grateful to her. And so should you be, if you think of my happiness.”
    â€œWe haven’t ever thought of it,” said Hengist. “We didn’t know you weren’t happy. And we didn’t know she was coming.”
    â€œWell, you know she is here now.”
    â€œYes, we can see her.”
    â€œAnd she is good to look at, isn’t she?”
    â€œYes, but so is she,” said Hengist, looking at his mother’s portrait. “I think she is better. I don’t think
she
can ever have been quite so good. Even if she was like her. And they are not.”
    â€œDear, dear, I find the pronouns too much,” said Miss Starkie. “I wish we could dispense with them.”
    â€œNo. I have never been quite so good,” said Teresa.
    â€œIt is a pity she can’t hear her,” said Leah. “She might be pleased.”
    â€œNow should not little people be seen and not heard?”said Miss Starkie, seeing no other solution. “I find myself favouring the old ideas.”
    â€œThey needn’t listen to us,” said Hengist. “I don’t think
she
does. She is only looking at Lavinia and her.”
    â€œCannot they say
Mamma
or
Mother
of their own mother?” said Teresa. “It would be of some help.”
    â€œThey do not remember her,” said Ninian, “and so do not speak of her. It makes them uncertain how to do it.”
    â€œNow I am sure that they—your father and Mrs. Chilton have had enough of you,” said Miss Starkie. “It has been kind to be patient with you for so long.”
    â€œYour patience has to hold out,” said Teresa.
    â€œIf it did not, I could not be an educationist, Mrs. Chilton.”
    â€œI did not know such people were distinguished by patience,” said Ninian. “It was not my experience.”
    â€œShe meant she could not be a governess,” said Hengist to Leah.
    â€œI meant what I said, Hengist. That is what a governess should be.”
    â€œDo other people think she is that?” said Leah.
    â€œCome, speak clearly,” said Miss Starkie.
    â€œShe wouldn’t have liked it said so that they could hear,” said Hengist.
    â€œAnd
she
mightn’t like us to say it about her, as she seems to like her.”
    â€œCome, open the door, Hengist,” said Miss Starkie, indifferent to anything but exit. “And wait for your sister and me. You know how to behave.”
    â€œI have not met a governess before,” said Teresa. “Are they always built on this scale?”
    â€œThere is scope for her qualities,” said