Sea of Glass (Valancourt 20th Century Classics) by Dennis Parry Page B
Authors: Dennis Parry
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sum of compensation. What with war in Europe and rising costs and the multiplicity of offenders, it became impossible to bring them to heel. Before his death Joseph Ellison had been robbed of a good part of his profits in South America and China; he died just in time to avoid seeing many more thousands vanish in the Russian revolution.
Still, it was only by the standards of Rockefeller and Morgan that his family had anything to complain of.
He had married at a date which now seems incredibly remote— 1873 . An advantageous marriage was needed to lift his social position onto a level with his bank account. Mrs. Ellison was, I believe, the daughter of a baronet. My aunt, who always knew these things, said that she was selected only after Joseph had been turned down by several Honourables.
‘And she wouldn’t have had him either, except that her father was gravely embarrassed. In those days girls were sold like sacks of coal.’
She pulled down the corners of her mouth in an equivocal way which indicated disapproval of such treatment, coupled with regret for the filial spirit which led young women to submit to it.
Whatever the truth about her marital situation, I am sure that Mrs. Ellison met it with good manners and fortitude.
After the evening in Turpin’s company, I did not feel well. I woke up with a headache which I put down to vintage port. But as the morning wore on and the headache was reinforced by fits of shivering, I suspected that I had caught a germ. That summer there was a good deal of mild ’flu about. I should not have been sorry to go to bed, but I did not like to play the invalid in a strange house. So I lay about in chairs for most of the morning, pretending to read, but with my eyes closed.
Fortunately my services as chaperon did not seem to be needed that morning. I saw nothing of Varvara until just before lunch, when I woke up from a doze to find her standing in the doorway watching me with an air which could not be mistaken for affection. When she noticed that I was awake, she said:
‘They tell me you are a lawyer.’
‘A student only. I’m reading Law at Cambridge.’
‘But still, no doubt, you have training to cheat inheritances.’
‘Nobody would be fool enough to allow me near an inheritance,’ I said.
‘You are humorous,’ said Varvara. ‘But I think now I see why you have made your appearance on this scene.’
‘Please go away, or talk sense. I don’t feel very well.’
She appeared to choose the first alternative, but after a moment she put her head back through the door.
‘In Doljuk,’ she said, ‘when the Tungans revolted, they put all the lawyers on sharp stakes. Up their bottoms,’ she said, lest I should miss anything.
I was feeling too muzzy to speculate on the reason for this outburst. It merely struck me as mildly surprising that she should have troubled to ask her grandmother about my future calling. Yet within the same day I had another and stranger example of interest directed to the same quarter.
Soon after lunch Mrs. Ellison came into the morning-room, walking slowly with the aid of a stick. She seemed disconcerted to find me there, and said something about the lovely weather outside. I was too embarrassed to tell her that I did not feel well, but I think she saw that I was in some kind of difficulty, for she immediately took my side, as it were, against herself.
‘When my sister Fanny became so ill that she could no longer move about I remember saying—no doubt in a very silly and sentimental way: “My poor dear, how I pity you for not being able to go out into the sunshine and the fresh air.” But Fanny said: “If you only knew how tired I’ve become in these last twenty years of people forcing me to leave warm fires for wet fields and cool conservatories for scorching lawns, you would not have such an exaggerated idea of the horrors of being crippled.” Myself I always thought it was a very sensible remark.’
‘I think so too,’ I
Still, it was only by the standards of Rockefeller and Morgan that his family had anything to complain of.
He had married at a date which now seems incredibly remote— 1873 . An advantageous marriage was needed to lift his social position onto a level with his bank account. Mrs. Ellison was, I believe, the daughter of a baronet. My aunt, who always knew these things, said that she was selected only after Joseph had been turned down by several Honourables.
‘And she wouldn’t have had him either, except that her father was gravely embarrassed. In those days girls were sold like sacks of coal.’
She pulled down the corners of her mouth in an equivocal way which indicated disapproval of such treatment, coupled with regret for the filial spirit which led young women to submit to it.
Whatever the truth about her marital situation, I am sure that Mrs. Ellison met it with good manners and fortitude.
After the evening in Turpin’s company, I did not feel well. I woke up with a headache which I put down to vintage port. But as the morning wore on and the headache was reinforced by fits of shivering, I suspected that I had caught a germ. That summer there was a good deal of mild ’flu about. I should not have been sorry to go to bed, but I did not like to play the invalid in a strange house. So I lay about in chairs for most of the morning, pretending to read, but with my eyes closed.
Fortunately my services as chaperon did not seem to be needed that morning. I saw nothing of Varvara until just before lunch, when I woke up from a doze to find her standing in the doorway watching me with an air which could not be mistaken for affection. When she noticed that I was awake, she said:
‘They tell me you are a lawyer.’
‘A student only. I’m reading Law at Cambridge.’
‘But still, no doubt, you have training to cheat inheritances.’
‘Nobody would be fool enough to allow me near an inheritance,’ I said.
‘You are humorous,’ said Varvara. ‘But I think now I see why you have made your appearance on this scene.’
‘Please go away, or talk sense. I don’t feel very well.’
She appeared to choose the first alternative, but after a moment she put her head back through the door.
‘In Doljuk,’ she said, ‘when the Tungans revolted, they put all the lawyers on sharp stakes. Up their bottoms,’ she said, lest I should miss anything.
I was feeling too muzzy to speculate on the reason for this outburst. It merely struck me as mildly surprising that she should have troubled to ask her grandmother about my future calling. Yet within the same day I had another and stranger example of interest directed to the same quarter.
Soon after lunch Mrs. Ellison came into the morning-room, walking slowly with the aid of a stick. She seemed disconcerted to find me there, and said something about the lovely weather outside. I was too embarrassed to tell her that I did not feel well, but I think she saw that I was in some kind of difficulty, for she immediately took my side, as it were, against herself.
‘When my sister Fanny became so ill that she could no longer move about I remember saying—no doubt in a very silly and sentimental way: “My poor dear, how I pity you for not being able to go out into the sunshine and the fresh air.” But Fanny said: “If you only knew how tired I’ve become in these last twenty years of people forcing me to leave warm fires for wet fields and cool conservatories for scorching lawns, you would not have such an exaggerated idea of the horrors of being crippled.” Myself I always thought it was a very sensible remark.’
‘I think so too,’ I
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