Stephen McKenna

“ LADY ANN SPENWORTH DEFENDS HER CONSISTENCY
LADY ANN (to a friend of proved discretion) : Consistency?
It is very easy, of course, to overdo that sort of thing, to become so inflexible that one is the slave and victim of one’s own rules. The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. . . On the other hand, I have no patience with the people who say one thing today and another to-morrow, so that you never know where you are with them. ”

“ The marriage, of course, takes place immediately, as they sail the moment Sir Appleton can arrange about their passages. I am sure that it will be a success, though I prefer not to think about it; dearly as I love little Molly, she is robbing me of my boy. As soon as they leave England, I shall go right away for a time. What with one thing and another, the last year has been very exhausting, and Arthur and I have to prepare for a new life and a very different life. The old and the new are bridged by one’s friends. ”

“ You’d better report me to the committee when it’s all over, and we shall then see whether, on a show-down, my action is approved.’ That, my dear Ann, is all I know; but, in case you’re not aware of it, any reflection on a man I’ve supported at a club is a reflection on me; if the young cub had been pilled, I should have had to resign; if he gets hoofed out, people will want to know why the hell I ever backed him. . .”
As you know, I am always lost in admiration of Spenworth’s elegance of diction. ”

“ This from Spenworth, whose life has been one dark, unbroken record of debauchery, unfaithfulness . . . not a tenth part known owing to his cleverness in hushing up scandals, impoverishing that glorious estate to buy the silence of those who held awkward secrets. Indeed I know what I am talking about. When he wanted poor Kathleen to divorce him, he gave her the run of Cheniston; heirlooms apart, she might take anything “to feather her new nest”, as he elegantly put it. And this in a house which will come to Arthur and Will if anything happens to that sickly baby. ”

“ I suppose concentration on one object is very necessary in business, but it does limit a man’s outlook: Sir Appleton could see but this one thing. “My good sir,” I wanted to tell him, “shew us how it is to be done, and it will be done.” But he would not discuss the appointment, though he had given me as solemn a promise as a man can give; he dashed home, after sending this girl on ahead, and we heard no more of them.
I felt that it was useless to talk to my boy just then, because he was so much worried that anything more might have brought on a complete break-down. My husband too. ”

“ Unfortunately you can’t please everybody, and Will was old-fashioned enough to desire a wife with whom he could be in love and to shut his ears to all the lures of money. . . Money? A man of his ability can always earn money, and our only difficulty was to know where to start. ”

“ Surely the wise course is to discover the great laws and hold to them unswervingly, only stepping aside by a hair’s breadth to left or right when the great laws quite obviously apply no longer. In the realm of principle I admit no compromise; Right is Right, and Wrong is Wrong, and no amount of special pleading can blur that distinction. ”

“ When our boy married, we knew that we should have to go on providing for him. Is it so great a sacrifice that we should move into a smaller house, that you, perhaps, should have to work longer than you had intended? It is to establish our son in life.”
When the announcement was published, I invited just the family to a little informal dinner. They were extravagant in their praise of Molly—Spenworth in his hyperbolical manner going so far as to tell her that she was “chucking herself away”, as he elegantly put it, on some one who was not good enough for her. ”

“ I have nothing more to say except that in your club you seem to be as violent and disorderly as out of it.”
There was a certain amount more noise . . . and bluster. But I think that in time even Spenworth must have seen that he was hardly the appropriate person to champion such a cause . . . whatever cause he imagined he was championing. . . Hardly had he left when my nephew was announced—and came in with a great show of embarrassment. I am very fond of Culroyd; so far as any one, without taking the responsibility of active interference, can help to bring two young people together. ”

“ When the fund has been collected, it will be settled on Miss Phenton, as it is her position that requires safeguarding; you have assured me of your son’s abilities, so he should have no difficulty in making a big income in the position which I contemplate offering him. If he fails, it will be his own fault; but, as I never believe in bolstering up failures, his wife must be made independent of his success in business. If you consent to this in principle and will empower me to work out the details, your son’s appointment is secured, and he can sail for China as soon as he can get a passage. ”

“ I said. “Tell me what has happened.”
“Well,” said Culroyd, “I think you know a man called Deepe, Appleton Deepe.” My heart sank! “He called on me to-day—I don’t know if the fellow’s mad, but he said: ‘You’re a cousin of Mr. William Spenworth, aren’t you? Now, he’s been doing one of the things that a gentleman doesn’t do; and some one has to thrash him for it. I’ll say that there’s a girl mixed up in it, but I won’t tell you any more. She has no brothers, and her father’s too old to do justice to the occasion. The question is: who’s to give him his thrashing? ”

“ Their love follows us into what must inevitably be retirement from the stage on which we have played our little part for our few years. . . We are abandoning any little niche that we may have occupied. ”

“ Let us now go in to dinner, or Miss Phenton will be wondering what has happened to us.”
I felt then that he had decided to break me at all costs, one shock after another. Forcing Will into marriage, driving him abroad, calmly proposing that I should denude myself of everything—and then throwing me face to face with this girl. I tried to protest. . . And then I knew that, if he did not give me something to eat, I should simply break down. . . ”

“ We have known each other long enough to look out on life with very much the same eyes. But the people who are good enough to criticize me without, perhaps, taking the trouble to ascertain even the facts of the case. ”

“ The problem of that period was to “carry on”, as Will would say; my brother Brackenbury and his wife would not like to be called mean, but they were certainly careful, and it was only by eternal pinching and scraping that we made both ends meet. Many young men in Will’s position would have put themselves up to auction, as it were, and married the first rich woman who came their way. Goodness me, my boy had a big enough choice! First of all Hilda, and he resigned his claims there to my nephew Culroyd ”

“ One so often finds with people who are not quite certain of themselves that they heap up affectations and dare not venture on a colloquialism for fear of seeming what they would call “ungenteel”. Slang I abhor, but there is such a thing as the daily speech of educated men and women. ”