Aunt Lavvy sat in Mamma"s place at the head of the tea-table. A tall, iron-grey woman in an iron-grey gown stood at her elbow holding a little tray. She looked curiously at Mary, as if her appearance there surprised and interested her. Aunt Lavvy put a cup of tea on the tray.
"Where"s Aunt Charlotte?"
"Aunt Charlotte is upstairs. She isn"t very well."
The maid was saying, "Miss Charlotte asked for a large piece of plum cake, ma"am," and Aunt Lavvy added a large piece of plum cake to the plate of thin bread and b.u.t.ter.
Mary thought: "There can"t be much the matter with her if she can eat all that."
"Can I see her?" she said.
She heard the woman whisper, "Better not." She was glad when she left the room.
"Has old Louisa gone, then?"
"No," Aunt Lavvy said. She added presently, "That is Aunt Charlotte"s maid."
IV.
Aunt Charlotte looked out through the bars of the old nursery window. She nodded to Mary and called to her to come up.
Aunt Lavvy said it did her good to see people.
There was a door at the head of the stairs, in a matchboard part.i.tion that walled the well of the staircase. You rang a bell. The corridor was very dark. Another part.i.tion with a door in it shut off the servants"
rooms and the back staircase. They had put the big yellow linen cupboard before the tall window, the one she used to hang out of.
Some of the old things had been left in the nursery schoolroom, so that it looked much the same. Britton, the maid, sat in Jenny"s low chair by the fireguard. Aunt Charlotte sat in an armchair by the window.
Her face was thin and small; the pencil lines had deepened; the long black curls hung from a puff of grey hair rolled back above her ears. Her eyes pointed at you--pointed. They had more than ever their look of wisdom and excitement. She was twisting and untwisting a string of white tulle round a sprig of privet flower.
"Don"t you believe a word of it," she said. "Your father hasn"t gone.
He"s here in this house. He"s in when Victor"s out.
"He says he"s sold the house to Victor. That"s a lie. He doesn"t want it known that he"s hidden me here to prevent my getting married."
"I"m sure he hasn"t," Mary said. Across the room Britton looked at her and shook her head.
"It"s all part of a plan," Aunt Charlotte said. "To put me away, my dear.
Dr. Draper"s in it with Victor and Emilius.
"They may say what they like. It isn"t the piano-tuner. It isn"t the man who does the clocks. They know who it is. It isn"t that Marriott man.
I"ve found out something about _him_ they don"t know. He"s got a false stomach. It goes by clockwork.
"As if I"d look at a clock-tuner or a piano-winder. I wouldn"t, would I, Britton?"
She meditated, smiling softly. "They make them so beautifully now, you can"t tell the difference.
"He"s been to see me nine times in one week. Nine times. But your Uncle Victor got him away before he could speak. But he came again and again.
He wouldn"t take "No" for an answer. Britton, how many times did Mr.
Jourdain come?"
Britton said, "I"m sure I couldn"t say, Miss Charlotte." She made a sign to Mary to go.
Aunt Lavvy was waiting for her at the foot of the stairs. She took her into her bedroom, Mamma"s old room, and asked her what Aunt Charlotte had said. Mary told her.
"Poor Mary--I oughtn"t to have let you see her."
Aunt Lavvy"s chin trembled. "I"m afraid," she said, "the removal"s upset her. I said it would. But Emilius would have it. He could always make Victor do what he wanted."
"It might have been something you don"t know about."
Grown-up and strong, she wanted to comfort Aunt Lavvy and protect her.
"No," Aunt Lavvy said. "It"s the house. I knew it would be. She"s been trying to get away. She never did that before."
(The doors and the part.i.tions, the nursery and its bars, the big cupboard across the window, to keep her from getting away.)
"Aunt Lavvy, did Mr. Jourdain really call?"
Aunt Lavvy hesitated. "Yes. He called."
"Did he see Aunt Charlotte?"
"She was in the room when he came in, but your uncle took him out at once."
"She didn"t talk to him? Did he hear her talking?"
"No, my dear, I"m sure he didn"t."
"Are you sure he didn"t see her?"
Aunt Lavvy smiled. "He didn"t look. I don"t think he saw any of us very clearly."
"How many times did he come?"
"Three or four times, I believe."
"Did he ask to see me?"
"No. He asked to see your Uncle Victor."
"I didn"t know he knew Uncle Victor."
"Well," Aunt Lavvy said, "he knows him now."
"Did he leave any message for me?"