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Page 72
"Exactly," said Mrs. Fisher. "It is what I intend to avoid."
"Most sensible," said Mr. Wilkins. "Why not, then," he
continued, "allow the cook--an excellent cook, by the way--so much a
head per diem"--Mr. Wilkins knew what was necessary in Latin--"and
tell her that for this sum she must cater for you, and not only cater
but cater as well as ever? One could easily reckon it out. The
charges of a moderate hotel, for instance, would do as a basis, halved,
or perhaps even quartered."
"And this week that has just passed?" asked Mrs. Fisher. "The
terrible bills of this first week? What about them?"
"They shall be my present to San Salvatore," said Scrap, who
didn't like the idea of Lotty's nest-egg being reduced so much beyond
what she was prepared for.
There was a silence. The ground was cut from under Mrs. Fisher's
feet.
"Of course if you choose to throw your money about--" she said at last,
disapproving but immensely relieved, while Mr. Wilkins was rapt in the
contemplation of the precious qualities of blue blood. This readiness,
for instance, not to trouble about money, this free-handedness--it
was not only what one admired in others, admired in others perhaps
more than anything else, but it was extraordinarily useful to the
professional classes. When met with it should be encouraged by warmth
of reception. Mrs. Fisher was not warm. She accepted--from which
he deduced that with her wealth went closeness--but she accepted
grudgingly. Presents were presents, and one did not look them in this
manner in the mouth, he felt; and if Lady Caroline found her pleasure
in presenting his wife and Mrs. Fisher with their entire food for
a week, it was their part to accept gracefully. One should not
discourage gifts.
On behalf of his wife, then, Mr. Wilkins expressed what she would
wish to express, and remarking to Lady Caroline--with a touch of
lightness, for so should gifts be accepted in order to avoid
embarrassing the donor--that she had in that case been his wife's
hostess since her arrival, he turned almost gaily to Mrs. Fisher and
pointed out that she and his wife must now jointly write Lady Caroline
the customary latter of thanks for hospitality. "A Collins," said Mr.
Wilkins, who knew what was necessary in literature. "I prefer the name
Collins for such a letter to either that of Board and Lodging or Bread
and Butter. Let us call it a Collins."
Scrap smiled, and held out her cigarette case. Mrs. Fisher could
not help being mollified. A way out of waste was going to be found,
thanks to Mr. Wilkins, and she hated waste quite as much as having to
pay for it; also a way was found out of housekeeping. For a moment she
had thought that if everybody tried to force her into housekeeping on
her brief holiday by their own indifference (Lady Caroline), or
inability to speak Italian (the other two), she would have to send for
Kate Lumley after all. Kate could do it. Kate and she had learnt
Italian together. Kate would only be allowed to come on condition that
she did do it.
But this was much better, this way of Mr. Wilkins's. Really a
most superior man. There was nothing like an intelligent, not too
young man for profitable and pleasurable companionship. And when she
got up, the business for which she had come being settled, and said she
now intended to take a little stroll before lunch, Mr. Wilkins did not
stay with Lady Caroline, as most of the men she had known would, she
was afraid, have wanted to--he asked to be permitted to go and stroll
with her; so that he evidently definitely preferred conversation to
faces. A sensible, companionable man. A clever, well-read man. A man
of the world. A man. She was very glad indeed she had not written to
Kate the other day. What did she want with Kate? She had found a
better companion.
But Mr. Wilkins did not go with Mrs. Fisher because of her
conversation, but because, when she got up and he got up because she
got up, intending merely to bow her out of the recess, Lady Caroline
had put her feet up on the parapet again, and arranging her head
sideways in the cushions had shut her eyes.
The daughter of the Droitwiches desired to go to sleep.
It was not for him, by remaining, to prevent her.
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