Loving - Henry Green [50]
ask me things will go from bad to worse if Mrs Tennant won't come home soon. And I love that girl of mine Edith, I love that child Miss Swift.' 'She's a good girl Miss Burch. The children will do anything for her.' 'There it is Miss Swift, she's had her eyes on him a long time and wishing's not likely to make things different. But I'm afraid for her with that man. He's up to no good,' Miss Burch pronounced and then paused. The nanny did not seem anxious for more. She merely repeated once again, 'She's a good girl Edith is.' 'I've never had a better,' Miss Burch began afresh. There, I'll go so far as that, never a better under me,' she said. 'In this great rambling place we have a week's cleaning to do each day. But you can depend on her. And that's something can't be said of the other, Kate. Sometimes I even wish with that one I'd been given an Irish girl to train up instead.' 'No Roman Catholics thank you,' Miss Swift said sharp. 'Yes,' Miss Burch agreed, 'we don't want those fat priests about confessin' people or taking snuff.' She stared from her knitting at Miss Swift for a moment. 'Are you feeling quite well?' she asked. 'Me?' the nanny said in a quavering voice. Thank you I'm sure. Poor nanny...' she began as if about to continue but Agatha broke in, Then that's all right. But I'm sorry for the girls nowadays,' she announced. 'It puts me in mind of the South Africa war. They see the men going out to get killed and it makes them restless. I remember how it was with me at the time. Then they look at us old women and they say to themselves they don't wish to end up like us. I was the same at their age. It's only after they've lived a few years longer that they'll come to realize there's worse than sleeping alone in your own bed, with a fresh joint down in the larder for dinner every day.' 'And a pension at the end, not just the old age,' Miss Swift put in quite bright once more. 'It was a weight off poor old nanny's mind I can tell you when they asked nanny to come back to Miss Violet after she'd done for her from a baby. To take on her own child's sweet babies the little angels.' 'Ah Mrs Jack,' Miss Burch announced in a voice of doom. Miss Swift looked askance. She hurriedly went on, 'And two of the best behaved little girls as ever I've had in my charge,' she said, 'so loving with their pretty little ways the Iambs. There's but one thing I could wish which is that there were more children round about for them to play with. You know Miss Burch it's not right at the age they are and with their position in life to have none but themselves. I was right glad when Mrs Jack told me about this Albert.' She paused for breath. 'Ah Mrs Jack,' Miss Burch put in as though sorrowing. The nanny set off again, more breathless still. 'Of course it's the times,' she said. 'Now even after the last war they would never have entertained it, the very idea. Why a boy like Albert, the cook's own nephew, dear me no. Never in your life. But it's come about. It's the shortage. Having no petrol,' she ended and lay back, blue about the lips. 'What was revealed came as a great shock to me,' Miss Burch said and paused to pick up a dropped stitch. The nanny rested herself with closed eyes. There was a silence. 'A great shock,' Miss Burch repeated getting up speed once more with her knitting. Miss Swift did not utter. 'They can do what they like after all,' Miss Burch went on, 'there's little or nothing we can say will make any difference when all's told. Yet I've got to consider my girls. It's not so much the example. Enough goes on in any farm yard. But there's the upset to a girl of Edith's age coming from a good home. I'm afraid for her.' 'She's a strong girl,' Miss Swift said faint, 'I can tell.' 'That's as may be,' Miss Burch replied, 'but going to call the lady and then to turn round after drawing those curtains to find the Captain Davenport in her bed as well why...' Miss Burch said and pursed her lips. There was no response so she looked up full at Miss Swift. This woman was lying back eyes closed or rather screwed shut in a wild look of alarm.