Stephen McKenna

“ When my brother Brackenbury sacrificed himself for the good of the family, he did it on such a scale that there was no need for any one to follow in his footsteps for several generations. Culroyd and Phyllida, for their age, are very well provided for; and, of course, there is a great deal more to come. No! I could not help feeling that he must have inherited a taste for money with his mother’s blood. It is extraordinary how rich people seem to attract rich people. ”

“ When Arthur speaks like that, I never argue with him. It is curious—one has seen the same thing a thousand times between mothers and daughters, but men always pride themselves on being unpetty—; Arthur is really jealous of his own son. If Will and he are left together for any time, Arthur becomes a different man, querulous, impossible to please. ”

“ I am sometimes so much afraid that Will may throw himself away on some one whom he’ll simply have to support all his life. And, short of selling the roof from over my head and the clothes from off my back, I have done all that I can do. . . I have lost the thread. . . .
Ah, yes! Culroyd! I fancy I told you that for a few months my niece Phyllida chose to fancy that she had a grievance against me. A young war-soldier tried to trap her into marriage, glamoured no doubt by the title and a fair presumption of money. ”

“ But you know: the house is a museum of memories. . . But it is a responsibility. Arthur’s directorships are good so far as they go, but he says there is a reaction against what he calls “figurehead directors”. Will is not yet earning anything; and I was cruelly disappointed by Sir Adolphus Erskine when I approached him for an appointment. . . So our income is not increasing, and the cost of living is. . .
I told Mrs. Surdan that I should be delighted to see her at any time. Arthur saw at once the desirability of considering a good offer. ”

“ People putting any position they may have up to auction! Are you surprised that London is what it is? I have always wondered, when I see the really and truly inexplicable young women with whom Connie Maitland is liée from time to time, whether she augments her income in this way. Otherwise I fail to understand how she keeps on that great house in Eaton Place and entertains as she does. But that is her business. . . If Mrs. Surdan had dared to propose such a thing, I really think I should have asked her to leave the house. . .
“Surely,” I said, “you are the best person to look after Hilda. ”

“ You know, there are some people who feel they owe themselves a grumble. . . As soon as Hilda arrived. Will behaved charmingly. You have seen her about in London, I expect? Oh, well, she is really pretty: small, exquisitely finished, with that “look-you-straight-in-the-eyes” air which so many girls seem to have acquired during the war. ”

“ I am a dull old woman; there are no girls to keep her company; and my husband and I have long found that, in entertaining, it is useless to compete with those who think in pounds when we are forced to think in pennies.”
“I should like Hilda to enjoy herself,” said Mrs. Surdan. ”

“ A broken reed, a mere “climber” who hoped to use me for securing an invitation to Cheniston and the delectable friendship of my brother-in-law Spenworth. . . I have lost the thread. . .
Ah, yes! For all its shabbiness, the dear old house looked more than attractive when Mrs. Surdan arrived for dinner. Just the two of us. . . I always think tea is such an inhospitable meal, and luncheon is hardly practicable when every gleam of sunlight shews you something more to be patched and painted. . . As a matter of fact I might have spared my pains, for she was not interested in the house. ”

“ At the same time, I was in a difficult position, for, while I never dreamed he would look at her as a wife, I should have liked him to establish some sort of claim on the girl’s father; and, if Will did not marry her, I was not doing much to help the Surdan fortunes. You know what men are! ”

“ She would not have made a suitable wife, and no amount of money will overcome those little hardly perceptible angularities of breeding which make the difference between a happy and an unhappy marriage. ”

“ Hilda is a thoroughly sensible girl, but London is a big place, and I suppose there is no harm in saying that she is very attractive and will have a good deal of money later on. You know far better than I do the importance of her meeting the right people. ”

“ Will can be rather a tease when he likes, but I think it a pity to go on with that sort of thing if other people haven’t enough humour to take it in good part. Culroyd and Hilda were so tremendously in earnest that they couldn’t bear to be chaffed ”