“I think you and I, Roland, are going to be great friends,” she said, and then turned with a slight little sigh, so small as to be almost imperceptible, to the louder voices appealing to her. “You must settle it among you,” she said. “I give Edward carte blanche. The only thing is that it must take in everybody, all the Vernonry and our neighbours as well—a real Christmas party.”
“Oh, don’t you think, Aunt Catherine, Christmas is such a bore!” said Ellen, “and family parties! Let us have strangers. Let us have people we never set eyes on before. Christmas is so vulgar! Look at all the newspapers with their little stories; the snow on the ground and the wanderer coming home, and so forth. I am so glad we haven’t got a wanderer to come home.”
“Christmas brings a great many duties I am sure,” said Miss Matilda. “Have you seen the charity flannel at Roby’s, Catherine? It is so good, almost good enough to wear one’s self; and the blankets really look like blankets, not horse-cloths. Do you think that is good or bad? What you give in charity ought to be different, don’t you think? not to let them suppose they have a right—”
“You forget,” said her sister, eager to get in a word, “that dear Catherine always gives the best.”
“Ah! it is well to be Catherine,” said Miss Matilda, “but many people think there should be a difference. What do you think, Mr. Harry? Catherine may consider poor people’s feelings; but there are some who think it is wrong to do so—for who is like Catherine? She is always giving. She is always so considerate. Whatever she does is sure to be the best way.”
“I am certain,” said Algernon Merridew beaming with honest loyalty from where he sat by Miss Vernon’s side, “that all Redborough is of that opinion; and Redborough ought to know.”
“You mean all but the people to whom I give,” said Catherine, “there are not so many of them: but they are the best judges of all, and I don’t think they approve.”
“There’s nobody so unreasonable as the poor,” said Ellen, “they are never satisfied. You should just see them turning over the pieces from my kitchen. Of course all the pieces are quite nice; everything is, I hope, where I am housekeeper. Oh, I know I am extravagant, I like the best of everything; but nothing satisfies the poor. Cold potatoes now with mayonnaise sauce are what I adore, but they throw them away.”
“Perhaps they don’t have the mayonnaise sauce?” suggested Edward.
“Oh, goodness! I hope not; that would be simply immoral,” cried Miss Matilda. “But, Mr. Harry, you don’t give your opinion, none of the gentlemen give their opinion. Perhaps that is because money is what they give, and one shilling is just like another. You can’t have charity shillings. Oh, but I approve of charity flannel; and some people always like to make a difference in what they give to the poor. Poor ladies and gentlemen soon find that out, I assure you. People give you useful presents. If they want to invite you, they invite you when there’s nobody there. They think a family dinner or high tea quite treat enough for you. And quite right, don’t you think, when one is in the position of a dependent? It keeps people in their proper places. Dear Catherine buys the best flannel, better than I can afford, for her Christmas gifts. She is never like other people, always more liberal; but I should buy the whitey-brown, that is, if I could afford any at all you know.”
“Don’t attack me, Matilda,” said Catherine, with a laugh, “all along the line.”
“Oh, attack! you, dear Catherine? not for the world. We all know what a friend you are. What should we do without you? Whether we are in Paris fashions or our old silks, don’t we owe it all to you?”
There was a little pause round the table which was somewhat awkward; for what could anybody say? The clever ones were all nonplussed, but Harry, who was the stolid one, suddenly became audible with his round rolling bass voice. “Whoever says that, and whether it was well meant or not, I say the same. It’s all quite true. We owe everything to Aunt Catherine. I am always ready to say so, wherever I go.”
“Have we come to Christmas toasts already?” said Edward intervening. “We had better not start that sort of thing before the time. We all know what we owe to Aunt Catherine.”
“Hush, hush,” she cried, waving her hand to him as she rose. “Now we shall release your noble intellects from the necessity of coming down to our level,” Catherine said as she followed carefully Miss Matilda’s long train. It was very long, though it was rather flimsy, and the progress of the ladies was impeded by it. Ellen swept out lightly in advance with a perfect command of hers. It was the first time she had preceded the old cousins in her dignity as a married woman, and the ring of her bracelets sounded like a little trumpet-note. As she followed them out Catherine Vernon returned to her habitual mood of amused indulgence. She had been almost sentimental for a moment, she said to herself, beguiled by that boy’s sympathetic eyes, which no doubt he must make great use of among the young ones. She laughed at herself not unpleasantly, to think of the confidences she had almost been beguiled into. But it pleased her to think that it was her mother’s blood which had exercised this influence upon
