Loving - Henry Green [12]
great dark eyes had been hot to glowing. 'I'll wager they had everything of gold,' Raunce said, still on about the excavations. 'And wore silk on their legs,' said Edith, short of breath. 'Don't talk so silly,' Miss Burch took her up. They never put silk next to themselves in those days my girl. It wasn't discovered.' 'Did they have silk knickers then Paddy,' Kate asked giggling. 'I never heard such a thing,' Miss Burch replied. 'You'll oblige me by dropping the subject. Isn't it bad enough to have dinner late as it is,' she said. 'You just leave the poor man alone. You let him be.' Bert spoke. The nursery never had much of theirs,' he said. 'I must've took back the better part of what I carried up." 'Oh dear,' cried Raunce in the high falsetto he put on whenever he referred to Nanny Swift. 'You should have seen 'er,' Bert added. Both girls giggled softly while Charley still in falsetto asked whose face, holy smoke. 'Now that's quite enough of that,' Miss Burch said firm. There was a pause. 'I knew Mrs Welch had been upset,' she went on, 'and now I perceive why, not that I'm trying to excuse those potatoes she just gave us,' she said. All of them listened. She seemed almost to be in good humour. They were never cooked,' she added, 'and I do believe that's why they put salt on spuds,' looking at Paddy, 'but I'll say this, those precious peacocks of yours would have spurned 'em.' Right to the last meal Mr Eldon had taken in this room it had been his part to speak, to wind up as it were, almost to leave the impress of a bishop on his flock. This may have been what led Charley to echo in a serious tone, 'Miss Swift is a difficult woman whilst she's up in her nursery. But she can be nice as you please outside.' That's right,' Miss Burch said, 'and as I've often found, take someone out of their position in life and you find a different person altogether, yes.' The two girls looked at one another, a waste of giggling behind their eyes again. 'But our potatoes this afternoon were not fit for the table,' Raunce said to Miss Burch. Thank you Mr Raunce,' she replied. In this way for the first time she seemed to recognize his place. 'Well look sharp my lad,' he said to Bert. He appeared to ooze authority. 'Holy Moses see what time it is.' He hastened out like a man who does not know how long his new found luck will hold. Also he had to make his first entry in the red notebook, to record the first tip. He put the date under Mrs Tancy's name, and then '3d'. 'Wonder what happened in that six months gap,' he murmured to himself about Mr Eldon's last date, 'she's been over to lunch many a time since and he'll have had the old dropsy out of her. He was losing grip not entering it, that's what,' he added aloud. Then he laid the books aside. He first addressed an envelope. To Mrs William Raunce,' he wrote in pencil, '396 May Road Peterboro' Yorks' and immediately afterwards traced this with a pen. Next he began on the letter, again in pencil. 'Dear Mother? he wrote without hesitating, 'I hope you are well. I am. Mr Eldon's funeral was last Tuesday. The floral tributes were grand. He will be sadly missed. At present I am doing his work and mine .1 am not getting any extra money which I have spoken of to Mrs Tennant. This war will make a big difference in every home. 'Mother I am very worried for you with the terrible bombing. Have you got a Anderson shelter yet? I ought to be over there with you Mother not here. But perhaps he will keep to London with his bombing. What will become of the old town. 'We are all in God's hands Mother dear. I am very perplexed with what is best to do whether to come over or stay. If I went away from here to be with you there would be the Labour Exchange and then the Army. They have not got to my age yet because I will be forty next June you remember. But I'm thinking they shall Mother and sooner than we look to. We must all hope for the best. 'With love Mother to my sister Bell. I do hope she looks after you all right tell her. Your loving son, Charley.' Then he inked it in. As he licked the envelope flap after