The Pelicans

ÒBecause they are left orphans at five years old?Ó

ÒHow you exaggerate, Ludovic! Rosamund is quite fourteen, and the little one canÕt be less than ten or eleven years old. And she wasnÕt much of a mother to them, poor thing.Ó

ÒWell, what form did her modified motherhood take?Ó

ÒLudovic, she is dead, after all,Ó Lady Argent reminded her son. ÒBut she was so much absorbed in her music, and they didnÕt get any proper education, as far as one knows. And then, of course, during this last year she was quite obviously dyingÑshe ought really to have been in a sanatorium.Ó

ÒShe must have been quite young,Ó said Ludovic Argent reflectively.

ÒOnly about seven- or eight-and-thirty. DonÕt you remember when she first settled here, just after the husband died, and we were all so excited about this pretty young widow and that enormous grand piano that had to be forced in at the front-door with such difficulty?Ó

ÒI suppose I was at Oxford then, since I donÕt remember the sensation which the grand piano must indeed have caused, if they got it through the front-door of that small place.Ó

Ludovic Argent and his mother both gazed across the valley below, because the front-door under discussion was immediately opposite their own, although separated from it by two slopes of hill and the River Wye. Only the window-panes twinkling in the afternoon sun were visible.

ÒAnd what will happen to her grand piano now? I suppose it will have to be got out again,Ó said Ludovic nonchalantly.

ÒThatÕs what I was just telling you,Ó Lady Argent mistakenly assured him. ÒIn a way they really are to be congratulated, poor little things. I believe Bertie Tregaskis is going to look after them.Ó

ÒIs that the woman who pervades Cornwall with model dairies and good works generally, and if so, what is she doing in this galre?Ó

ÒShe was a cousin of Mrs. GranthamÕs, and the very day after Mrs. Grantham became so much worse Bertie was down here to see after those poor little girls. So exactly like her, because it wasnÕt a particularly near relationship or anythingÑsimply one of her magnificent, generous impulses. They really have nobody, poor waifs; the mother doesnÕt seem to have had any belongings at all, or if she had, they are Hungarians of sorts, and much better not raked up, in all probability.Ó