Free An Unsuitable Attachment by Barbara Pym Page B

likes that. I'm just going to give her some milk.'
    'Is this all you're putting on the Christmas cake this year?' asked Mark, picking up a rather battered-looking plaster Father Christmas.
    'Yes, I forgot to buy new decorations.'
    'People have robins and holly and Yule logs,' said Mark. 'I'm sure Sister Dew does.'
    'No doubt—and we have our solitary Father Christmas left over from several years ago.' Sophia placed him in the middle of the cake which was covered with white icing forked up into ridges.
    'He looks like King Lear in the snow, deserted by his daughters,' said Mark. 'But many old people are lonely and neglected at Christmas, so our cake decoration won't be so inappropriate after all. It should put us in mind of the old people in our own parish.'
    'Daisy Pettigrew is doing her usual food parcel scheme for the old age pensioners,' Sophia reminded him.
    'Yes, and their cats will be looked after too—one only hopes Daisy won't put in more food for them than for the humans.'
    Faustina looked up from her saucer, her dark face made all the more reproachful by its beard of milk.
     
    ***
     
    In the library where Ianthe worked the approach of Christmas had made itself felt, though it would be too much to say that any particularly Christmas spirit or noticeable increase of goodwill could be discerned, even though Shirley had hung up a few coloured paper chains.
    On the last day before the holiday Mervyn seemed more irritable than usual.
    'Mother is a Spiritualist, you know,' he said to Ianthe, 'and somehow that doesn't seem to make our Christmas a particularly jolly one.'
    'I suppose preoccupation with those who have—er—died isn't quite in accordance with the spirit of Christmas,' said Ianthe tentatively.
    'No—and our relations and friends who have passed over seem to be a particularly dreary bunch. Perhaps it's the fault of the medium—she's a Miss Stylish and lives in Balham, not very promising, you'll agree,' said Mervyn sourly.
    Ianthe never knew how to talk to him when he was in this sort of mood. She felt she could have done better than she did with her next remark.
    'Balham,' she said, thoughtful yet desperate, 'that's on the Northern Line, isn't it.'
    'Yes, my dear. It's black on the Underground map, so very suitable, I always think. Picture us arriving there on Boxing Day in time for tea by public transport, of course.'
    Then, before Ianthe could comment further, he switched in his usual way to another subject.
    'Now here's something wrong again,' he said, taking up a card. 'London colon— not semi-colon and not comma. I should have thought it wasn't too difficult for other people to get the details right occasionally. That doesn't seem too much to ask, does it? I can't see to everything myself.'
    Ianthe and John were silent, feeling that no adequate answer could be made. In any case it was Shirley who had typed the card and she was in a higher or lower world that cared nothing for such trivia.
    Just before five o'clock Mervyn came up to Ianthe carrying a wrapped bottle with a Christmas label tied round the neck. She produced from her shopping bag a box of crystallized fruits she had bought for him, and a mutual exchange took place.
    'This is Madeira,' said Mervyn. 'It seems a suitable present for a respectable unmarried lady who might be visited by the clergy.'
    Ianthe murmured her thanks.
    'I don't think of Ianthe like that,' said John. '"A respectable unmarried lady"—that makes her sound old and dull.'
    'Well, I am that,' said Ianthe, with the uncomfortable feeling that she was being a little coy.
    'You're old compared with John,' said Mervyn a little too sharply.
    'Yes, of course—quite a lot older,' said Ianthe, surprised at his tone.
    'What does age matter,' said John gallantly.
    'In some cases it does,' said Mervyn and then went out of the room.
    'Oh dear,' said Ianthe. 'He's in a funny mood today, and I don't feel I've thanked him properly for his Christmas present.'
    She was able to do this