rebel, only she was not sure how to do so. But I felt that Ellie, now that I was coming to know her better, was one of those very simple people who have unexpected reserves. I thought Ellie would be quite capable of taking a stand of her own if she wished to. The point was that she wouldn't very often wish to and I thought then how difficult everyone was to understand. Even Ellie. Even Greta. Even perhaps my own mother. The way she looked at me with fear in her eyes.
I wondered about Mr. Lippincott. I said, as we were peeling some outsize peaches,
'Mr. Lippincott seems to have taken our marriage very well really. I was surprised.'
'Mr. Lippincott,' said Greta, 'is an old fox.'
'You always say so, Greta,' said Ellie, 'but I think he's rather a dear. Very strict and proper and all that.'
'Well, go on thinking so if you like,' said Greta. 'Myself, I wouldn't trust him an inch.'
'Not trust him!' said Ellie.
Greta shook her head. 'I know. He's a pillar of respectability and trustworthiness. He's everything a trustee and a lawyer should be.'
Ellie laughed and said, 'Do you mean he's embezzled my fortune? Don't be silly, Greta. There are thousands of auditors and banks and check-ups and all that sort of thing.'
'Oh I expect he's all right really,' said Greta. 'All the same, those are the people that do embezzle. The trustworthy ones. And then everyone says afterwards 'I'd never have believed it of Mr. A or Mr. B. The last man in the world.' Yes, that's what they say. 'The last man in the world'.'
Ellie said thoughtfully that her Uncle Frank, she thought, was much more likely to go in for dishonest practices. She did not seem unduly worried or surprised by the idea.
'Oh well he looks like a crook,' said Greta. 'That handicaps him to start with. All that geniality and bonhomie. But he'll never be in a position to be a crook in a big way.'
'Is he your mother's brother?' I asked. I always got confused over Ellie's relations.
'He's my father's sister's husband,' said Ellie. 'She left him and married someone else and died about six or seven years ago. Uncle Frank has more or less stuck on with the family.'
'There are three of them,' said Greta kindly and helpfully. 'Three leeches hanging round, as you might say. Ellie's actual uncles were killed, one in Korea and one in a car accident, so what she's got is a much damaged stepmother, an Uncle Frank, an amiable hanger-on in the family home and her cousin Reuben whom she calls Uncle but he's only a cousin and Andrew Lippincott, and Stanford Lloyd.'
'Who is Stanford Lloyd?' I asked, bewildered.
'Oh another sort of trustee, isn't he, Ellie? At any rate he manages your investments and things like that. Which can't really be very difficult because when you've got as much money as Ellie has, it sort of makes more money all the time without anyone having to do much about it. Those are the main surrounding group,' Greta added, 'and I have no doubt that you will be meeting them fairly soon. They'll be over here to have a look at you.'
I groaned, and looked at Ellie. Ellie said very gently and sweetly, 'Never mind, Mike, they'll go away again.'
Chapter 12
They did come over. None of them stayed very long. Not that time, not on a first visit. They came over to have a look at me. I found them difficult to understand because of course they were all American. They were types with which I was not well acquainted. Some of them were pleasant enough.
Uncle Frank, for instance. I agreed with Greta about him. I wouldn't have trusted him a yard. I had come across the same type in England. He was a big man with a bit of a paunch and pouches under his eyes that gave him a dissipated look which was not far from the truth, I imagine. He had an eye for women, I thought, and even more of an eye for the main chance. He borrowed money from me once or twice, quite small sums, just, as it were, something to tide him over for a day or two. I thought it was not so much that he needed the money but he wanted to test me out, to see if I lent money easily. It was rather worrying because I wasn't sure which was the best way to take it. Would it have been better to refuse point blank and let him know I was a skinflint or was it better to assume an appearance of careless generosity, which I was very far from feeling. To hell with Uncle Frank, I thought.
Cora, Ellie's stepmother was the one that interested me most. She was a woman of about forty, well turned out with tinted hair and a rather gushing manner. She was all sweetness to Ellie.
'You mustn't mind those letters I wrote you, Ellie,' she said. 'You must admit that it came as a terrible shock your marrying like that. So secretly. But of course I know it was Greta who put you up to it, doing it that way.'
'You mustn't blame Greta,' said Ellie. 'I didn't mean to upset you all so much. I just thought that – well, the less fuss -'
'Well, of course, Ellie dear, you have something there. All the men of business were simply livid. Stanford Lloyd and Andrew Lippincott. I suppose they thought everyone would blame them for not looking after you better. And of course they'd no idea what Mike would be like. They didn't realise how charming he was going to be. I didn't myself.'
She smiled across at me, a very sweet smile and one of the falsest ones I'd ever seen! I thought to myself that if ever a woman hated a man, it was Cora who hated me. I thought her sweetness to Ellie was understandable enough. Andrew Lippincott had gone back to America and had, no doubt, given her a few words of caution. Ellie was selling some of her property in America, since she herself had definitely decided to live in England, but she was going to make a large allowance to Cora so that the latter could live where she chose. Nobody mentioned Cora's husband much. I gathered he'd already taken himself off to some other part of the world, and had not gone there alone. In all probability, I gathered, another divorce was pending. There wouldn't be much alimony out of this one. Cora's last marriage had been to a man a good many years younger than herself with more attractions of a physical kind than cash.
Cora wanted that allowance. She was a woman of extravagant tastes. No doubt old Andrew Lippincott had hinted clearly enough that it could be discontinued any time if Ellie chose, or if Cora so far forgot herself as to criticise Ellie's new husband too virulently.
Cousin Reuben, or Uncle Reuben did not make the journey. He wrote instead to Ellie a pleasant, noncommittal letter hoping she'd be very happy, but doubted if she would like living in England. 'If you don't, Ellie, you come right back to the States. Don't think you won't get a welcome here because you will. Certainly you will from your Uncle Reuben.'
'He sounds rather nice,' I said to Ellie.
'Yes,' said Ellie meditatively. She wasn't, it seemed, quite so sure about it.
'Are you fond of any of them, Ellie?' I asked, 'or oughtn't I to ask you that?'
'Of course you can ask me anything.' But she didn't answer for a moment or two all the same. Then she said, with a sort officiality and decision, 'No, I don't think I am. It seems odd, but I suppose it's because they don't really belong to me. Only by environment, not by relationship. They none of them are my flesh and blood relations. I loved my father, what I remembered of him. I think he was rather a weak man and I think my grandfather was disappointed in him because he hadn't got much head for business. He didn't want to go into the business life. He liked going to Florida and fishing, that sort of thing. And then later he married Cora and I never cared for Cora much – or Cora for me, for that matter. My own mother, of course, I don't remember. I liked Uncle Henry and Uncle Joe. They were fun. In some ways more fun than my father was. He, I think, was in some ways a quiet and rather sad man. But the uncles enjoyed themselves. Uncle Joe was, I think, a bit wild, the kind that is wild just because they've got lots of money. Anyway, he was the one who got smashed up in the car, and the other one was killed fighting in the war. My grandfather was a sick man by that time and it was a terrible blow to him that all his three sons were dead. He didn't like Cora and he didn't care much for any of his more distant relatives. Uncle Reuben, for instance. He said you could never tell what Reuben was up to. That's why he made arrangements to put his money in trust. A lot of it went to museums and hospitals. He left Cora well provided for, and his daughter's husband Uncle Frank.'
'But most of it to you?'
