"Is there any more apple-pudding?"
"Yes, my lady."
"Then I will have some," said Lady Vivian, not at all unaware of the
pained expression which Miss Bruce had unconsciously assumed. The
unquenchable laugh still danced in her deeply-circled blue eyes as she
gazed across the luncheon-table at Grace.
"Do have some more pudding, Grace. I know you never get enough to eat at
your Hostel."
Miss Bruce put down her fork with a look of resignation. The excellent
appetite displayed by Lady Vivian seemed to her extraordinary enough on
the part of one widowed only a week ago, but that of the still-visiting
Miss Jones amounted to a scandal.
In Miss Bruce's opinion, Miss Jones should have removed herself from
Plessing a week ago, in spite of the strong predilection evinced by Lady
Vivian for her society. It was not decent, Miss Bruce thought, to shun
one's own daughter and take so many and such lengthy walks in company of
a comparative stranger of less than half one's own age.
"Un-natural, I call it," said Miss Bruce, shaking her head.
Char shrugged her shoulders.
"What does it matter? I'm glad she should take an interest in any one or
anything, though I can't understand such a friendship for that trivial
little girl myself. But one thing is certain enough: I shall have to ask
her to resign. It would be quite impossible, since my mother has chosen
to treat her as one of the family, to keep her on at the office when I
go back there. Though perhaps I ought to say--if I go back there."
"Oh, my dear Charmian, why? Surely there can be no reason now--less than
ever, I mean to say--why you should not take up that splendid work at
the Supply Depôt again. Why, the whole thing hinges on you."
"I know," said Char dejectedly. "But there's my mother to consider. I
really don't see how I'm to leave her all alone here, and I don't know
if she'll care to come into Questerham with me."
Char had hardly seen her mother since Sir Piers's funeral, three days
ago. Lady Vivian had refused to display any form of prostration, had
discussed every necessary item of business with John Trevellyan and Dr.
Prince, and when not engaged in answering innumerable letters and
telegrams of condolence, had taken Grace Jones for long walks with her
across the snowy fields.
"But," Char said to Miss Bruce, "we shall have to discuss business
sooner or later. For all I know, we may have to leave Plessing. It was
to be my mother's for her life, I believe, but she may choose to let
Uncle Charles come into it at once. He has a large family of children,
after all. His being in Salonika now makes it all so much more
complicated."
"I dare say there will be no change just at present. Everything will be
so unsettled until this dreadful war is over," Miss Bruce soothed her
vaguely.
But she, too, thought that it would be necessary for Lady Vivian soon to
give her daughter some outline of her future plans.
On New Year's Day, rising from the helping of apple-pudding which she
had left unfinished as a protest, Miss Bruce after lunch said firmly to
Lady Vivian: "You will want to talk to Charmian this afternoon, I feel
sure. There is a fire in the library, so perhaps--"
She looked meaningly at Miss Jones, who, instead of making at least a
pretence of at once following her out of the room, gazed imperturbably
at Lady Vivian.
"Char," inquired Joanna mildly, "do you want to talk to me?"
"We'd better come to an understanding, hadn't we, mother? You see, I
haven't the vaguest idea of your plans."
"But why should you have any, my dear? They won't interfere with your
work at Questerham. If you want to know about Plessing, I can tell you
in two words. Your Uncle Charles doesn't want any change made until
after the war, so that I can either let it or go on living in it, as I
please."
Decorum took Miss Bruce as far as the door of the dining-room, but was
not strong enough to put her outside it while Grace Jones still
remained, with no apparent consciousness of indiscretion, sitting
unmoved in her place, and in full hearing of this discussion, which
every tradition would restrict to a family one.