‘Thank you, dear Amabelle,’ said Philadelphia. ‘I think you are quite right, although it will be terrible to wait all that time. Still, it won’t be so bad when you come to live here for good.’
‘Of course not,’ said Amabelle cheerfully. ‘I’ll have Paul to stay every week-end, and I expect Walter and Sally will be down sometimes, so it won’t be nearly as lonely for you at Compton Bobbin as it used to be. All the same, I think you’re making a terrible mistake, my dear, in refusing Michael. I shall never alter my opinion about that.’
Paul said, as they walked back to Compton Bobbin, ‘I’ll tell you what I’ll do. My Uncle Joseph has some ghastly sort of business in the city. I’ll make him give me a job, he has offered to before. I see what Amabelle means; your mother is far more likely to come round to the idea of our marriage if she thinks I have definite work. People of that generation are so extraordinary in those ways; they don’t care about self-expression or any of the things that really matter. So long as one has a good solid and respectable job they are quite satisfied about one. The truth is that they have misused leisure themselves for so long that they think of it as a bad thing for anybody to have. Never mind, I will crucify myself for your sake, sweet one, on an office stool for a month or two anyway, until we see what happens. Something is sure to turn up, it always does. It’s a bit souring about Lady Maria all the same. I was looking forward to publishing that.’
‘Darling, I hate to think of you making such a sacrifice.’
‘There’s no sacrifice I wouldn’t make for you, darling. Besides, the moment we’re married I shall bring it out and show the world that I’m a serious writer of the front rank.’
‘Paul, I do love you.’
‘Darling, darling Philadelphia. How do you manage to be so heavenly with a mother like that?’
‘I believe Daddy was rather sweet.’
‘That accounts for it then, no doubt.’
As soon as Bobby got back from his shoot he went round to see Amabelle.
‘What’s all this nonsense about Paul and Delphie?’ he said accusingly.
‘Oh, so you know about it by now, do you? Who told you?’
‘Nobody told me, but I should have to be as dense as my mother seems to be if I couldn’t see with half an eye what’s happening. They sit holding hands on the drawing-room sofa all day, and Delphie keeps on throwing out dark hints about how wonderful it is to be in love and all that sort of thing. It can only be a matter of moments now before Mummy tumbles to it, I should think, and then there’ll be the devil to pay.’
‘Didn’t I know those silly children would never be able to keep it quiet? And what view do you take of the whole thing, Bobby? You needn’t tell me, darling. I can guess.’
‘Well, naturally, I think it’s quite crazy. I only hope and pray that Delphie won’t ruin her chances of marrying Michael by her idiocy, that’s all. Thank heaven he’s out of the way for the present. As for Paul, I really do think it’s a bit hard he should behave like this after all the trouble I’ve taken for him.’
‘I must say I agree with you for once,’ said Amabelle. ‘They came over yesterday to confess it all and ask my advice, and I’m afraid I was rather unkind to them. I’ve seen Paul wildly in love with too many people to take that very seriously, and as for Philadelphia, why at her age one is in love every other week. I gather that Michael made a mess of everything as usual. He had only to go about it with a little ordinary sense and she’d have been crazy about him by now. Really that young man, I’ve no patience at all with him; he behaves like a very unconvincing character in a book, not like a human being at all.’
‘Yes, doesn’t he. The sort of book of which the reviewers would say “the characterization is weak; the central figure, Lord Lewes, never really coming to life at all; but there are some fine descriptive passages of Berkshire scenery.” What did you say to Delphie?’
‘I told her she was mad not to marry Michael, and then she began to cry, and I really hadn’t the heart to go on. I finally told them that if they intend to marry in spite of everything they must keep this affair a deadly secret until Paul has some satisfactory job. Of course they’ll do neither the one thing nor the other. They are evidently not capable of keeping a secret, and I can no more imagine Paul in a job than a fly.’
‘Good gracious, no; he’d never stick to it for a day.’
‘I suppose, in point of fact, that if they did marry your mother would have to give them some sort of allowance, but it’s much better that they shouldn’t think so, because Paul, who must, after all, have a good idea of what poverty means, isn’t likely to elope with her unless he can be fairly certain that there will be some money eventually.’
‘Paul’s not mercenary, you know,’ said Bobby.
‘Not in the least, but he’s not an absolute fool either. I doubt if he’d risk such a thing, for her sake as well as his own. The worst of it is that I don’t believe, apart from the money side of it, that they would be particularly happy
