WHAT FOLLOWED
As General Grantly had predicted, Mrs Ffolliot was very much upset when
she heard about Ger's eyes, and was for rushing up to London herself,
there and then to interview the oculist. But Mr Ffolliot dissuaded
her. For one thing, he hated Redmarley without her even for a single
night. For another, he considered such a journey a needless expense.
This, however, he did not mention, but contented himself with the
suggestion that it would seem a reflection upon Mrs Grantly's
competence to do anything of the kind; and that consideration weighed
heavily with his wife where the other would have been brushed aside as
immaterial and irrelevant. "I can't understand it," the Squire
remarked plaintively; "I did not know there had ever been any eye
trouble in your family."
"There never has, so far as I know; but surely," and Mrs Ffolliot spoke
with something less than her usual gentle deference, "we needn't seek
far to find where Ger gets his."
"Do you mean that he inherits it from ME?"
"Well, my dear Larrie, surely _you've_ got defective sight, else why
the monocle?"
"But Ger isn't a bit like me. He is all Grantly. In character, I
sometimes think he resembles your mother, he is so fond of society; in
appearance he's very like the others, except the Kitten. Now, if the
Kitten's sight had been astigmatic . . ."
"We must take care that she doesn't suffer from neglect like poor
little Ger," Mrs Ffolliot interrupted rather bitterly. "I shall write
at once to their house-master to have the twins' eyes tested. I'll run
no more risks. We know Grantly's all right because he passed his
medical so easily. Poor, poor little Ger."
"It certainly is most unfortunate," said Mr Ffolliot.
He was really concerned about Ger, but mingled with his concern was the
feeling that the little boy had taken something of a liberty in
developing that particular form of eye trouble. It seemed an unfilial
reflection upon himself. Moreover, there was something in the
General's letter plainly stating the bare facts that he did not exactly
like. It was, he considered, "rather brusque." He started for the
South, of France four days earlier than he had originally intended.
Ger was taken to the great oculist in London, who confirmed the
"Myjor's" diagnosis of his case, and he was forthwith put into large
round spectacles. When he got them, his appearance brought the tears
to his grandmother's eyes--tears she rigidly repressed, for Ger was so
enormously proud of them. The first afternoon he wore them he went
with his grandfather to see Grantly playing in a football match at the
Shop, and among those watching on the field he espied his friend "the
Ram-Corps Angel." Ger knew him at once, although he wore no white
garment, not even khaki, just a plain tweed suit like his grandfather's.
While the General was deep in conversation with the "Commy," Ger
slipped away and sought his friend.
"Hullo," said the 'Myjor,' "so you've got 'em on."
"Yes, sir," said Ger, saluting solemnly, "and I'm very much obliged.
It's lovely to see things so nice and clear. Please may I ask you
something?"
The Major stepped back out of the crowd and Ger slipped a small hand
confidingly into his. Ger had not been to school yet, so there were
excuses for him.
"Do you think," he asked earnestly, "that if I'm very industr'us and
don't turn out quite so stupid as they expected, that by-and-by I might
get into the Ram Corps?"
Major Murray looked down very kindly at the anxious upturned face with
the large round spectacles.
"But I thought the Shop was the goal of your ambition?"
"So it was, sir, at first. Then I gave it up because it seemed so
difficult, and I talked it over with Willets, and he said _he'd_ never
had a great deal of book-learnin'--though he writes a beautiful hand,
far better than father--and then I thought I'd be a gamekeeper."
"And what did Willets think?"
"Well, he didn't seem to be very sure--and now I come to think of it,
I'm not very fond of killing things . . . so if there was just a
chance . . ."
"I'd go into the Ram Corps if I were you," said Major Murray; "by the
time you're ready, gamekeepers--if there are any--will have to pass
exams, like all the other poor beggars. You bet your boots on that.
Some Board of Forestry or other will start 'em, you see if they don't."
"Oh, well, if there's to be exams, that settles it. I certainly shan't
be one," Ger said decidedly; "I've been thinking it over a lot----"
"Oh, you have, have you?"
"An' it seems to me . . ."
"Yes, it seems to you?"
"That pr'aps you get to know people better if you mend all their
accidents and things. I'm awfully fond of people, they're so
intrusting, I'd rather know about them than anything."
"What sort of people?"
"The men you know, and their wives and children; they're awfully nice,
the ones I know--and if you see after them when they're ill and that,
they're bound to be a bit fond of you, aren't they?"
Major Murray gave the cold little hand in his a squeeze. "It seems to
me," he said, "that you're just the sort of chap we want. You stick to
it."
"Is it _very_ hard to get in?"
"Well, it isn't exactly easy, but it's dogged as does it, and if you
start now--why, you've plenty of time."
"That's settled then," said Ger, "and when you're Medical
Inspector-General or some big brass hat like the fat old gentleman who
came to see Ganpy yesterday--you'll say a good word for me, won't you?"
"I will," Major Murray promised, "I most certainly will."
"You see," Ger continued, beaming through his spectacles, "if there's
war I should be bound to go, they can't get on without the Ram Corps
then, and I'd be doing things for people all day long. Oh, it would be
grand."
"It strikes me," said Major Murray, more to himself than to Ger, "that
you stand a fair chance of getting your heart's desire--more than most
people."
"I'm very partikler about my nails now," said Ger. "I saw you
scrubbing yours that day at the Cadet Hospital."
When he got home Mrs Ffolliot retired to her room and cried long and
heartily, but Ger never knew it. His spectacles to him were a joy and
a glory, and he confided to the Kitten that _his_ guardian angel,
Sergeant-Major Spinks, did sentry beside them every night so that they
shouldn't get lost or broken.
"My angel's in prizzen," the Kitten announced dramatically.
"In prison!" exclaimed Ger, "whatever for?"
"For shooting turkeys," the Kitten replied, "an' he's all over
chicken-spots."
"Why did he shoot turkeys for?"
"'Cause he wanted more feathers for his wings."
"But that wouldn't give him chicken-spots."
"No, _that_ didn't--he got them at a pahty, like you did last
Christmas."
"Poor chap," said Ger, "but I can't see why he stays in prison when he
could fly away."
"They clipped his wings," the Kitten said importantly, "an' I'm glad;
he can't come and bother me no more now."
"I hope Spinks won't go shooting fowls and things in his off-time," Ger
said anxiously. "I must warn him."
"Pheasants wouldn't matter so much," the Kitten said leniently, "I
asked Willets; but turkeys is orful."
"Not at all sporting to shoot turkeys," Ger agreed, "though they are so
cross and gobbly."
In the middle of February Mrs Ffolliot fell a victim to influenza, and
she was really very ill.
At first she would not allow anyone to tell her husband about it, but
when she became too weak to write herself, Mary took it upon her to
inform her father of her mother's state. The doctor insisted on
sending a nurse, as three of the servants had also collapsed, and Mrs
Grantly came down from Woolwich to see to things generally; though when
she came, she acknowledged that Mary had done everything that could be
done.
Mr Ffolliot curtailed his holiday by a week, and returned at the end of
February, to find his wife convalescent, but thin and pale and weak as
he had never before seen her during their married life.
He decided that he would take her for a fortnight to Bournemouth.
But Mrs Grantly had other views.
She, Mary, and Mr Ffolliot were sitting at breakfast the day after his
return, when he suggested the Bournemouth plan with what Willets would
have called his most "Emp'rish air."
Mrs Grantly looked across at Mary and the light of battle burned in her
bright brown eyes.
"I don't think Bournemouth would be one bit of good for Margie," she
said briskly, "you can't be sure of sunshine--it may be mild, but it's
morally certain to rain half the time, and Margie needs cheerful
surroundings--sunshine--and the doctor says . . . a complete change of
scene and people."
"Where would you propose that I should take her?" Mr Ffolliot asked,
fixing his monocle and staring steadily at his mother-in-law.
"To tell you the truth, Hilary, I don't propose that _you_ should take
her anywhere. What I propose is that her father and I should take her
to Cannes with us a week to-day."
"To Cannes," Mr Ffolliot gasped, "in a week. I don't believe she could
stand the journey."
"Oh yes, she could. Her father will see that she does it as
comfortably as possible, and I shall take Adèle, who can look after
both of us. We'll stay a night in Paris, and at Avignon if Margie
shows signs of being very tired. You must understand that Margie will
go as our guest."
Mr Ffolliot dropped his monocle and leant back in his chair. "It is
most kind of you and the General," he said politely, "but I doubt very
much if she can be persuaded to go."
"Oh she's going," Mrs Grantly said easily, while Mary, with scarlet
cheeks, looked at her plate, knowing well that the subject had never
been so much as touched upon to her mother. "You see, Hilary, she has
had a good deal of Redmarley, and the children and you, during the last
twenty years, and it will do her all the good in the world to get away
from you all for a bit. Don't you agree with me, Mary?"
Mary lifted her downcast eyes and looked straight at her father. "The
doctor says it's mother's only chance of getting really strong," she
said boldly, "to get right away from all of us."
"You, my dear Hilary," Mrs Grantly continued in the honeyed tones her
family had long ago learnt to recognise as the precursor of verbal
castigation for somebody, "would not be the agreeable and well-informed
person you are, did you not go away by yourself for a fairly long time
during every year. I don't think you have missed once since Grantly
was born. How often has Margie been away by herself, even for a couple
of nights?"
"Margie has never expressed the slightest wish to go away," Mr Ffolliot
said reproachfully. "I have often deplored her extreme devotion to her
children."
"Somebody had to be devoted to her children," said Mrs Grantly.
Mr Ffolliot ignored this thrust, saying haughtily, "Since I understand
that this has all been settled without consulting me, I cannot see that
any good purpose can be served in further discussion of the arrangement
now," and he rose preparatory to departure.
"Wait, Hilary," Mrs Grantly rose too. "I don't think you quite
understand that the smallest objection on your part to Margie would at
once render the whole project hopeless. What you've got to do is to
smile broadly upon the scheme----"
Here Mary gasped, the "broad smile" of the Squire upon anything or
anybody being beyond her powers of imagination.
"Otherwise," Mrs Grantly paused to frown at Mary, who softly vanished
from the room, "you may have Margie on your hands as an invalid for
several months, and I don't think you'd like that."
"But who," Mr Ffolliot demanded, "will look after things while she's
away?"
"Why you and Mary, to be sure. My dear Hilary," Mrs Grantly said
sweetly, "a change is good for all of us, and it will be wholesome for
you to take the reins into your own hands for a bit. I confess I've
often wondered how you could so meekly surrender the whole management
of this big place to Margie. It's time you asserted yourself a little."
Mr Ffolliot stared gloomily at Mrs Grantly, who smiled at him in the
friendliest fashion. "You see," she went on, "you are, if I may say
so, a little unobservant, or you would perhaps have personally
investigated what made Ger, an otherwise quite normally intelligent
child, so very stupid over his poor little lessons."
"I've always left everything of that sort to his mother."
"I know you have--but do you think it was quite fair? And for a long
time Margie has been looking thin and fagged. Her father was most
concerned about it at Christmas--but I never heard you remark upon it."
"She never complains," Mr Ffolliot said feebly.
"Complains," Mrs Grantly repeated scornfully. "We're not a complaining
family. But I should have thought _you_ with your strong love of the
beautiful would at least have remarked how she has gone off in looks."
"She hasn't," said Mr Ffolliot with some heat.
"She looks her age, every day of it," Mrs Grantly persisted. "When we
bring her back she'll look like Mary's sister!"
"How long do you propose to be away?"
"Oh, three weeks or a month; at the most a fortnight less than you have
had every year for nineteen years."
Mr Ffolliot made no answer; he took out his cigarette case and lit a
cigarette with hands that were not quite steady.
"You quite understand then, Hilary, that you are to put the whole
weight of your authority into the scale that holds France for Margie?"
"I thought you said it was settled?"
"My dear man, you know what a goose she is; if she thought you hated
it, nothing would induce her to go--you _must_ consider her for once."
"I really must protest," Mr Ffolliot said stiffly, "against your
gratuitous assumption that _I_ care nothing for Margie's welfare."
"Not at all," Mrs Grantly said smoothly, "I only ask for a modest
manifestation of your devotion, that's all."
"Shall I go to her now?" said Mr Ffolliot with the air of a lamb led to
the slaughter.
"Certainly not--she'll probably be trying to get up lest you should
want her for anything. _I'll_ go and keep her in bed till luncheon.
You may come and see her at eleven."
When Fusby came in for the breakfast tray, Mr Ffolliot was still
standing on the hearth-rug immersed in thought.