Free A Family and a Fortune by Ivy Compton-Burnett Page A

matter.’
    â€˜Was Mr Dudley talking to you outside?’ said Matty in a sudden, different tone to Miss Griffin.
    â€˜No - yes - he just said a word, and then went out to look at the night, into the porch,’ said Miss Griffin, who told a falsehood when she could see no other course.
    Oliver had heard the voices in the hall, but he did not speak. He never crossed the barrier into the women’s world. If he had done so, he would have had to protect Miss Griffin and anger his daughter; and he felt unequal to either of these things, which would have tried the strength of a younger man.
    â€˜Did you notice the way they set off home?’ said Matty, with a return of mirth. ‘I saw them from the window. My eyes are still alert for what they can see, though I am tied to my chair. Blanche leading the way, and Justine trying to keep up and to keep step, and failing in both in spite of her youth and her strength! And the two men walking behind, as tranquil as if they were unconscious of the feminine creatures in front! Blanche leading a group is one of my earliest memories. Her stiff, little legs marching on, how they come back to me! And they are so little different, the active, determined, little legs. How much of her height is in her body! Well, my legs are not so much to boast of now. I have not my old advantage. Dear, dear, it is a funny thing, a family. I can’t help feeling glad sometimes that I have had no part in making one.’
    â€˜Why try to help it? It is well to be glad of anything, andyou do not too often seem so. Though some people might not choose just that reason.’
    â€˜Well, mine is not a lot which calls for much gladness. It needs some courage to find any cause for it.’
    â€˜So courage is the word for your talk of your sister. We could find others.’
    â€˜Blanche and I are the closest friends. I am going to rejoice in being the elder sister again. You and she are the only people who see me as I was, and not as I am, the poor, baffled, helpless creature who has to get her outlet somehow. Yes, I was bright and young once. Even Miss Griffin remembers part of that time.’
    â€˜Yes, indeed I do; indeed you were,’ said Miss Griffin.
    â€˜Miss Griffin was even younger,’ said Oliver, bringing a new idea to both his hearers as he rose to leave them.
    â€˜Yes, I was a naughty, sprightly person,’ continued Matty after a moment’s pause, during which the idea left her. ‘Always looking for something on which to work my wits. Something or someone; I fear it did not matter as long as my penetration had its exercise. Well, we can’t choose the pattern on which we are made. And perhaps I would not alter mine. Perhaps there is no need to meddle with it, eh, Miss Griffin?’
    Miss Griffin was standing with her hand on her chair, thinking of the next step in her day. She gave a faint start as she realized her plight and saw the look on Matty’s face. The next moment she heard her voice.
    â€˜Don’t go dragging away from the table like that. Either move about and get something done, or don’t pretend to do anything. Just posing as being a weary drudge will not get us anywhere.’
    â€˜Perhaps the things which have made me that, have got us somewhere,’ said Miss Griffin, in an even, oddly hopeless tone, with little idea that the words on her lips marked a turning point in her life.
    â€˜You need not answer like that. That is not going to begin, so you need not think it is. I do not expect to have my words taken up as if I were a woman on the common line. I am a very exceptional person and in a tragic position,and you will have to grasp it, or you are no good to me. And going off in that way, pretending not to hear, taking advantage of my helplessness! That is a thing of such a dreadful meanness that no one would speak to you if he knew it; no one would go near you; you would be shunned and spat upon!’
    Matty’s