The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie - Muriel Spark [39]
must organise the dear fellow's food before I go home tonight," Miss Brodie said in the summer of nineteen-thirty-three while Sandy leaned against the kitchen door with her legs longing to be running along the sea shore. Jenny came and joined her, and together they waited upon Miss Brodie, and saw on the vast old kitchen table the piled-up provisions of the morning's shopping. Outside on the dining-room table stood large bowls of fruit with boxes of dates piled on top of them, as if this were Christmas and the kitchen that of a holiday hotel. "Won't all this give Mr. Lowther a stoppage?" Sandy said to Jenny. "Not if he eats his greens," said Jenny. While they waited for Miss Brodie to dress the great ham like the heroine she was, there came the sound of Mr. Lowther at the piano in the library singing rather slowly and mournfully: All people that on earth do dwell, Sing to the Lord with cheerful voice. Him serve with mirth, his praise forth tell, Come ye before him and rejoice. Mr. Lowther was the choir-master and an Elder of the church, and had not yet been quietly advised to withdraw from these offices by Mr. Gaunt the minister, brother of Miss Gaunt, following the finding of the nightdress under the pillow next to his. Presently, as she put the ham on a low gas and settled the lid on the pot Miss Brodie joined in the psalm richly, contralto-wise, giving the notes more body: O enter then his gates with praise, Approach with joy his courts unto. The rain had stopped and was only now hanging damply within the salt air. All along the sea front Miss Brodie questioned the girls, against the rhythm of the waves, about the appointments of Teddy Lloyd's house, the kind of tea they got, how vast and light was the studio, and what was said. "He looked very romantic in his own studio," Sandy said. "How was that?" "I think it was his having only one arm," said Jenny. "But he always has only one arm." "He did more than usual with it," said Sandy. "He was waving it about," Jenny said. "There was a lovely view from the studio window. He's proud of it." "The studio is in the attic, I presume?" "Yes, all along the top of the house. There is a new portrait he has done of his family, it's a little bit amusing, it starts with himself, very tall, then his wife. Then all the little children graded downwards to the baby on the floor, it makes a diagonal line across the canvas." "What makes it amusing?" said Miss Brodie. "They are all facing square and they all look serious," Sandy said. "You are supposed to laugh at it." Miss Brodie laughed a little at this. There was a wonderful sunset across the distant sky, reflected in the sea, streaked with blood and puffed with avenging purple and gold as if the end of the world had come without intruding on every-day life. "There's another portrait," Jenny said, "not finished yet, of Rose." "He has been painting Rose?" "Yes." "Rose has been sitting for him?" "Yes, for about a month." Miss Brodie was very excited. "Rose didn't mention this," she said. Sandy halted. "Oh, I forgot. It was supposed to be a surprise. You aren't supposed to know." "What, the portrait, I am to see it?" Sandy looked confused, for she was not sure how Rose had meant her portrait to be a surprise to Miss Brodie. Jenny said, "Oh, Miss Brodie, it is the fact that she's sitting for Mr. Lloyd that she wanted to keep for a surprise." Sandy realised, then, that this was right. "Ah," said Miss Brodie, well pleased. "That is thoughtful of Rose." Sandy was jealous, because Rose was not supposed to be thoughtful. "What is she wearing for her portrait?" said Miss Brodie. "Her gym tunic," Sandy said. "Sitting sideways," Jenny said. "In profile," said Miss Brodie. Miss Brodie stopped a man to buy a lobster for Mr. Lowther. When this was done she said: "Rose is bound to be painted many times. She may well sit for Mr. Lloyd on future occasions, she is one of the crème de la crème." It was said in an enquiring tone. The girls understood she was trying quite hard to piece together a whole picture from their random remarks. Jenny accordingly let