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

do that, and I daresay it is fortunate.’
    â€˜Yes, it is indeed. We have been involved in the latter today, and we see that we could not manage too many. Now it is so good to hear you talk again. We see we have not given up our home for nothing.’
    â€˜Indeed you have not. You have left it to make a new onewith all of us,’ said Blanche, relieved by the turn of the talk and not disturbed that she had been unable to produce it.
    â€˜Such a lot of happiness, such a lot of affection and kindness,’ said Matty, in a tone charged with sweetness and excitement. ‘It is so good to know that we are welcome.’
    â€˜It is indeed,’ said Oliver; ‘for a moment since I should have thought that we could not be.’
    â€˜How are you, sir?’ said Edgar and Dudley, speaking at one moment, but obliged to shake hands in turn.
    â€˜I am well, I thank you, and I hope that both of you are better by thirty-odd years, as you should be.’
    Oliver put a chair for his son-in-law and settled down to talk. He gave his feeling to his daughters but he liked to talk with men.
    â€˜How are you, Miss Griffin?’ said Dudley, turning from the pair. ‘I hope you are not hiding feelings of your own on the occasion.’
    â€˜No, I am not; it all makes a change,’ said Miss Griffin, admitting more feeling than she knew into the last word. ‘And we did not want that large house for so few people. It is better to be in a little one, where there is less work and more comfort. And I don’t mind the small rooms. I rather like to be snug and compact.’
    â€˜Now I would not claim that that is just my taste. I confess to a certain disposition towards the opposite,’ said Matty, in a clear tone. ‘It is not of my own will that I have changed my scale of life. I admit that I felt more at home with the other. It is all a matter of what fits our different personalities, I suppose.’
    â€˜I hope I do not make cosy corners wherever I go,’ said Dudley. ‘I don’t want too many merely lovable qualities. They are better for other people than for oneself.’
    â€˜Well, there will always be such a corner for you here. I shall be grateful if you will help me to make one, as it is rather outside my experience and scope. But once made, it will be always hospitable and always ready. If we can’t have one thing we will have another, or anyhow I will. I am not a person to give up because I can’t have just what I should choose, just what fits me, shall we say?’
    â€˜I don’t know why we should say it, child,’ said Oliver. ‘And anyhow you should not.’
    â€˜I wish my parents were not dead,’ said Dudley. ‘I should like to be called “child” by someone. It would prove that there were people about who were a generation older than me, and it will soon want proof.’
    â€˜Welcome, welcome to your new hom! said Justine’s voice. ‘Welcome to your new life. I know I am one too many; I know you are tired out; I know your room is full. I know it all. But I simply had to come to wish you happiness, and say to you, Welcome, well come.’
    â€˜So you had, dear, and it gives us such pleasure to hear it,’ said Matty, raising her face from her chair. ‘I did hope that some of you would feel that and come to tell us so. It seemed to me that you would, and I see I was not wrong. One, two, three, four dear faces! Only three left at home. It is such a help to us in starting again, and it is a thing which does need help. You don’t know that yet, and may it be long before you do.’
    â€˜Well, I judged it, Aunt Matty, and that is why I am here. Of course, you must need courage. You can’t start again without a good deal of looking back. That must be part of it. And I did feel a wish to say a word to help you to look forward.’
    Blanche looked at her daughter in simple appreciation; Edgar threw her