The Enchanted April - Chapter 15

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnhem, chapter fifteen. The
strange effect of this incident was that when they met
that evening at dinner, both missus Fisher and Lady Caroline
had a singular feeling of secret understanding with mister Wilkins.

(00:27):
He could not be to them as other men. He
could not be to them as he would have been
if they had met him in his clothes. There was
a sense of broken ice. They felt at once intimate
and indulgent. Almost they felt to him as nurses do,

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as those feel who have assisted either patience or young
children at their baths. They were acquainted with mister Wilkins's legs.
What missus Fisher said to him that morning, in her
first shock, will never be known. But what mister Wilkins
said to her in reply, when reminded by what she

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was saying of his condition, was so handsome in its apology,
so proper in its confusion, that she had ended by
being quite sorry for him and completely placated. After all,
it was an accident, and nobody could help accidents. And

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when she saw him next at dinner, dressed polished, spotless
as to linen, and sleek as to hair. She felt
this singular sensation of a secret understanding with him, and
added to it of a kind of almost personal pride
in his appearance now that he was dressed, which presently

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extended in some subtle way to an almost personal pride
in everything he said. There was no doubt whatever in
Missus Fisher's mind that a man was infinitely preferable as
a companion to a woman. Mister Wilkins's presence and conversation
at once raised the standard of the dinner table from

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that of a bear garden, yes, a bear garden, to
that of a civilized social gathering. He talked as men
talk about interesting subjects, and though most courteous to Lady Caroline,
showed no traces of dissolving into simpers and idiocy whenever

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he addressed her. He was indeed precisely as courteous to
missus Fisher herself, and when, for the first time at
that table, politics were introduced, he listened to her with
the proper seriousness, on her exhibiting a desire to speak,
and treated her opinions with the attention they deserved. He

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appeared to think much as she did about Lloyd George,
and in regard to literature, he was equally sound. In fact,
there was real conversation, and he liked nuts. How he
could have married Missus Wilkins was a mystery. Lottie, for
her part, looked on with round eyes. She had expected

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Mellersh to take at least two days before he got
to this stage, but the San Salvatore spell had worked instantly.
It was not only that he was pleasant at dinner,
for she had always seen him pleasant at dinners with
other people. But he had been pleasant all day, privately,
so pleasant that he had complimented her on her looks

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while she was brushing out her hair, and kissed her,
kissed her, and it was neither good morning nor good night. Well,
this being so, she would put off telling him the
truth about her nest egg, and about Rose not being
his hostess after all till next day. Pity to spoil things.

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She had been going to blurt it out as soon
as he had a rest. But it did seem a
pity to disturb such a very beautiful frame of mind
as that of Mellersh this first day. Let him too,
get more firmly fixed in heaven. Once fixed, he wouldn't
mind anything her face sparkled with delight at the instantaneous

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effect of San Salvatore. Even the catastrophe of the bath
of which she had been told when she came in
from the garden, had not shaken him. Of course, all
that he had needed was a holiday. What a brute
she had been to him when he wanted to take
her himself to Italy. But this arrangement, as it happened,

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was ever so much better, though not through any merit
of hers. She talked and laughed gaily, not a shred
of fear of him left in her. And even when
she said, struck by his spotlessness, that he looked so
clean that one could eat one's dinner off him, and
Scrap laughed the llersh laughed too. He would have minded

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that at home, supposing that at home she had had
the spirit to say it. It was a successful evening, Scrap.
Whenever she looked at mister Wilkins, saw him in his
towel dripping water, and felt indulgent. Missus Fisher was delighted
with him. Rose was a dignified hostess in mister Wilkins's eyes,

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quiet and dignified, and he admired the way she waved
her right to preside at the head of the table
as a graceful compliment, of course, to missus Fisher's age.
Missus Arbuthnot was opined miss mister Wilkins naturally retiring. She
was the most retiring of the three ladies. He had

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met her before dinner alone for a moment in the
drawing room, and had expressed an appropriate language his sense
of her kindness in wishing him to join her party,
and she had been retiring. Was she shy? Probably she
had blushed and murmured as if in deprecation, and then

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the others had come in at dinner she talked least.
He would, of course become better acquainted with her during
the next few days, and it would be a pleasure,
he was sure. Meanwhile, Lady Caroline was all and more
than all mister Wilkins had imagined, and had received his speeches,

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worked inskillfully between the courses graciously. Missus Fisher was the
exact old lady he had been hoping to come across
all his professional life, and Lottie had not only immensely improved,
but was obviously au mieux. Mister Wilkins knew what was
necessary in French with Lady Caroline. He had been much

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tormented during the day by the thought of how he
had stood conversing with Lady Caroline forgetful of his not
being dressed, and had at last written her a note
most deeply apologizing and beseeching her to overlook his amazing,
his incomprehensible obliviousness, to which she had replied in pencil

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on the back of the envelope, don't worry. And he
had obeyed her commands and had put it from him.
The result was he was now in great contentment. Before
going to sleep that night, he pinched his wife's ear.
She was amazed these endearments. What is more, the morning

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brought no relapse in mister Wilkins, and he kept up
to his high level throughout the day, in spite of
its being the first day of the second week and
therefore payday. It being payday precipitated Lottie's confession, which she had,
when it came to the point, been inclined to put

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off a little longer. She was not afraid she dared anything,
but Milersha was in such an admirable humor, why risk
clouding it just yet? When, however, soon after breakfast, Costanza
appeared with a pile of very dirty little bits of
paper covered with sums and pencil, and having knocked at

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missus Fisher's door and been sent away, and at Lady
Caroline's door and been sent away, and at Rose's door
and had no answer because Rose had gone out. She
waylaid Lottie, who was showing Mallersh over the house, and
pointed to the bits of paper, and talked very rapidly
and loud, and shrugged her shoulders a great deal, and

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kept on pointing at the bits of paper. Lotty remembered
that a week had passed without anybody paying anything to
any one, and that the moment had come to settle up.
Does this good lady want something, inquired mister Wilkins, malifluously, Money,

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said Lotty. Money. It's the housekeeping bills. Well you have
nothing to do with those, said mister Wilkins serenely, Oh
yes I have. And the confession was precipitated. It was

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wonderful how Melersh took it. One would have imagined that
his sole idea about the nest egg had always been
that it should be lavished on. Just this he did
not as he would have done at home cross examine her.
He accepted everything as it came pouring out about her,
FIBs and all. And when she had finished and said,

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you have every right to be angry, I think, but
I hope you won't be and will forgive me instead,
he merely asked, what can be more beneficial than such
a holiday? Whereupon she put her arm through his and
held it tight, and said, oh, mellersh, you really are
too sweet, Her face red with pride in him. That

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he should so quickly assimilate the atmosphere, that he should
at once become nothing but kindness showed surely what a
real affinity he had with good and beautiful things. He
belonged quite naturally in this place of heavenly calm. He
was extraordinary how she had misjudged him by nature, a

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child of light. Fancy not minding the dreadful FIBs she
had gone in for before lee home, Fancy passing even
those over without comment. Wonderful, yet not wonderful, for it
wasn't he in heaven. In heaven, nobody minded any of

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those done with things. One didn't even trouble to forgive
and forget. One was much too happy. She pressed his
arm tight in her gratitude and appreciation, and though he
did not withdraw his neither did he respond to her pressure.
Mister Wilkins was of a cool habit and rarely had

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any real wish to press. Meanwhile, Costanza, perceiving that she
had lost the wilkinses ear, had gone back to missus Fisher,
who at least understood Italian, besides being clearly in the
servant's eyes, the one of the party marked down by
age and appearance, to pay the bills and to her

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while missus Fisher put the final touches to her toilette,
for she was preparing by means of putting on a
hat and veil and feather boa and gloves to go
for her first stroll in the lower Garden, positively her
first since her arrival. She explained that unless she was
given money to pay the last week's bills, the shops

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of Castagneto would refuse credit for the current week's food.
Not even credit would they give, affirmed Costanza, who had
been spending a great deal and was anxious to pay
all her relations what was out them, and also to
find out how her mistresses took it, for that day's meals.

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Soon it would be the hour of colazzione, and how
could there be colazzione without meat, without fish, without eggs,
without missus Fisher took the bills out of her hand
and looked at the total, and she was so much
astonished by its size, so much horrified by the extravagance
to which it tests, that she sat down at her

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writing table to go into the thing thoroughly. Costanza had
a very bad half hour. She had not supposed it
was in the English to be so mercenary and then Leavecchia,
as she was called in the kitchen, knew so much Italian,
and with a doggedness that filled Costanza with shame on

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her behalf, for such conduct was the last thing when
expected from the noble English. She went through item after item,
requiring and persisting till she got them explanations. There were
no explanations except that Costanza had had one glorious week
of doing exactly as she chose, of splendid unbridled license,

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and that this was the result. Costanza, having no explanations, wept.
It was miserable to think she would have to cook
from now on under watchfulness, and her suspicion, and what
would her relatives say when they found the orders they
received were whittled down. They would say she had no influence,

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They would despise her. Costanza wept, but missus Fisher was unmoved.
In slow and splendid Italian, with the roll of the
cantoes of the inferno, she informed her that she would
pay no bills till the following week, and that meanwhile
the food was to be precisely as good as ever,

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and at a quarter the cost. Costanza threw up her hands.
Next week proceeded missus Fisher unmoved. If she found this
had been so, she would pay the whole. Otherwise she
paused for what she would do otherwise, she did not

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know herself, But she paused and looked impenetrable, majestic and menacing,
and Costo Zanza was cowed. Then missus Fisher, having dismissed
her with a gesture, went in search of Lady Caroline
to complain. She had been under the impression that Lady

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Caroline ordered the meals and therefore was responsible for the prizes,
But now it appeared that the cook had been left
to do exactly as she pleased. Ever, since they got there,
which of course was simply disgraceful. Scrap was not in
her bedroom, but the room on missus Fisher's opening the door,

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for she suspected her of being in it and only
pretending not to hear. The knock was still flower like
from her presence scent sniffed Missus Fisher, shutting it again,
and she wished Carlyle could have had five minutes straight
talk with this young woman, and yet perhaps even he.

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She went downstairs to go into the garden in search
of her, and in the hall encountered mister Wilkins. He
had his hat on and was lighting a cigar. Indulgent
as missus Fisher felt towards mister Wilkins, and peculiarly and
even mystically related after the previous morning's encounter. She yet

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could not like a cigar in the house out of doors.
She endured it, but it was not necessary when out
of doors was such a big place to indulge the
habit indoors. Even mister Fisher, who had been, she should say,
a man originally tenacious of habits, had quite soon after marriage,

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got out of this one. However, mister Wilkins, snatching off
his hat. On seeing her, instantly threw the cigar away.
He threw it into the water, a great jar of
airum lilies presumably contained, and Missus Fisher, aware of the
value men attached to their newly lit cigars, could not

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but be impressed by this immediate and magnificent amand onorab
But the cigar did not reach the water. It got
caught in the lilies and smoked on by itself among them.
A strange and depraved looking object. Where are you going to,

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my pretty? Began mister Wilkins, advancing towards missus Fisher, but
he broke off just in time. Was it mourning spirits
impelling him to address missus Fisher in the terms of
a nursery rhyme? He wasn't even aware that he knew
the thing most strange? What could have put it at

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such a moment into his self possessed head. He felt
great respect for missus Fisher, and would not for the
world have insulted her by addressing her as a maid,
pretty or otherwise. He wished to stand well with her.
She was a woman of parts, and also he suspected
of property. At breakfast, they had been most pleasant together

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and he had been struck by her apparent intimacy with
well known persons Victorians, of course, but it was RESTful
to talk about them. After the strain of his brother
in law's Georgian parties on Hampstead Heath. He and she
were getting on famously. He felt she already showed all
the symptoms of presently wishing to become a client. Not

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for the world would he offend her. He turned a
little cold at the narrowness of his escape. She had, not, however,
noticed you were going out, he said, very politely, all readiness,
should she confirm his assumption to accompany her. I want

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to find Lady Carroll, said missus Fisher, going towards the
glass door leading into the top garden. An agreeable quest,
remarked mister Wilkins. May I assist in the search? Allow me,
he added, opening the door for her. She usually sits

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over in that corner behind the bushes, said missus Fisher,
And I don't know about it being an agreeable quest.
She has been letting the bills run up in the
most terrible fashion and needs a good scolding. Lady Caroline,
said mister Wilkins. Unable to follow such an attitude. What

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has lady Caroline, if I may inquire to do with
the bills here? The housekeeping was left to her, and
as we all share alike, it ought to have been
a matter of honor with her. But Lady Caroline housekeeping
for the party here, a party which includes my wife,

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My dear lady. You render me speechless. Do you not
know she is the daughter of the Droit Witches? Oh?
Is that who she is? Said Missus Fisher, scrunching heavily
over the pebbles towards the hidden corner. Well, that accounts
for it. The muddle that man Droit Witch made in

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his department in the war was a national scandal. It
amounted to misappropriation of the public funds. But it is impossible,
I assure you to expect the daughter of the Droit Witches,
began mister Wilkins earnestly. The Droit Witches, interrupted, Missus Fisher,

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are neither here nor there. Duties undertaken should be performed.
I don't intend my money to be squandered for the
sake of any droitwitches. A headstrong old lady perhaps not
so easy to deal with as he had hoped. But
how wealthy. Only the consciousness of great wealth would make

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her snap her fingers in this manner. At the Droit
Witch's Lottie, on being questioned, had been vague about her circumstances,
and had described her house as a mausoleum with goldfish
swimming about in it. But now he was sure she
was more than very well off. Still, he wished he

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had not joined her at this moment, for he had
no sort of desire to be present at such a
spectacle as the scolding of Lady Caroline Dester. Again, however,
he was reckoning without scrap. Whatever she felt. When she
looked up and beheld mister Wilkins discovering her corner on
the very first morning, nothing but angelicness appeared on her face.

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She took her feet off the parapet on missus Fisher's,
sitting down on it and listening gravely to her opening
remarks as to her not having any money to fling
about in reckless and uncontrolled household expenditure. Interrupted her flow
by pulling one of the cushions from behind her head
and offering it to her. Sit on this said, scrap

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holding it out, you'll be more comfortable, mister Wilkins leapt
to relieve her of it. Oh, thanks, said missus Fisher, interrupted,
it was difficult to get into the swing. Again, mister
Wilkins inserted the cushion solicitously between the slightly raised Missus
Fisher and the stone of the parapet, and again she

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had to say thanks. It was interrupted. Besides, Lady Caroline
said nothing in her defense. She only looked at her
and listened with the face of an attentive angel. It
seemed to mister Wilkins that it must be difficult to
scold a dester who looked like that, and so exquisitely
said nothing. Missus Fisher, he was glad to see, gradually

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found it difficult herself. For her severity slackened, and she
ended by saying, lamely, you ought to have told me
you were not doing it. I didn't know you thought
I was, said the lovely voice. I should now like
to know, said missus Fisher, what you propose to do

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for the rest of the time here? Nothing, said scrap smiling.
Nothing do you mean to say? If I may be allowed? Ladies,
interposed mister Wilkins, in his suavest professional manner, to make
a suggestion They both looked at him, and, remembering him

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as they first saw him, felt indulgent. I would advise
you not to spoil a delightful holiday with worries over
housekeeping exactly, said missus Fisher. It is what I intend
to avoid. Most sensible, said mister Wilkins. Why not, then,

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he continued, Allow the cook an excellent cook, by the way,
so much ahead, per diem. Mister Wilkins knew what was
necessary in Latin, and tell her that for this sum
she must cater for you, and not only cater, but
cater as well as ever one could easily reckon it out.

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The charges of a moderate hotel, for instance, would do
as a basis had or perhaps even quartered. And this
week that has just past, asked missus Fisher, the terrible
bills of this first week, What about them? They shall
be my present to San Salvatore, said Scrap, who didn't

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like the idea of Lottie's nest egg being reduced so
much beyond what she was prepared for. There was a silence.
The ground was cut out from under missus Fisher's feet.
Of course, if you choose to throw your money about,
she said at last, disapproving but immensely relieved, while mister

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Wilkins was wrapt in the contemplation of the precious qualities
of blue blood. This readiness, for instance, not to trouble
about money, this free handedness. It was not only what
one admired in others admired in others, perhaps more than
anything else, but it was extraordinarily useful to the professional classes.

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When met with it should be encouraged by warmth of reception.
Missus Fisher was not warm she accepted, from which he
deduced that with her wealth went closeness. But she accepted grudgingly.
Presents were presents, and one did not look them in
this manner in the mouth. And if Lady Caroline found

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her pleasure in presenting his wife and Missus Fisher with
their entire food for a week, it was their part
to accept gracefully. One should not discourage gifts on behalf
of his wife. Then mister Wilkins expressed what she would
wish to express, and remarking to Lady Caroline with a

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touch of lightness, for so should gifts be accepted in
order to avoid embarrassing the donor that she had, in
that case been his wife's hostess since her arrival. He
turned almost gayly to missus Fisher and pointed out that
she and his wife must now jointly write Lady Caroline
the customary letter of thanks for hospitality, a Collins, said

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mister Wilkins, who knew what was necessary in literature, I
prefer the name Collins for such a letter to either
that of board and lodging or bread and butter. Let
us call it a Collin's scrap, smiled and held out
her cigarette case. Missus Fisher could not help being mollified.

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A way out of waste was going to be found,
thanks to mister Wilkins, and she hated waste quite as
much as having to pay for it. Also, a way
was found out of housekeeping. For a moment, she had
thought that if everybody tried to force her into housekeeping
on her brief holiday by their own indifference Lady Caroline

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or inability to speak Italian the other two, she would
have to send for Kate Lumley. After all, Kate could
do it. Kate and she had learnt Italian together. Kate
would only be allowed to come on condition that she
did do it. But this was much better this way
of mister Wilkins. Really a most superior man. There was

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nothing like an intelligent, not too young man for profitable
and pleasurable companionship. And when she got up, the business
for which she had come being settled, and said she
now intended to take a little stroll before lunch. Mister
Wilkins did not stay with Lady Caroline, as most of

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the men she had known would. She was afraid have
wanted to. He asked to be permitted to go and
stroll with her, so that he evidently definitely preferred conversation
to faces. A sensible companionable man, a clever, well read man,

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a man of the world, a man she was very glad. Indeed,
she had not written to Kate the other day. What
did she want with Kate? She had found a better companion.
But mister Wilkins did not go with missus Fisher because
of her conversation, but because when she got up and

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he got up, because she got up intending merely to
bow her out of the recess. Lady Caroline had put
her feet up on the parapet again, and arranging her
head sideways in the cushions, had shut her eyes. The
daughter of the droit Witch's desire to go to sleep.
It was not for him. By remaining to prevent her

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end of Chapter fifteen,