A Family and a Fortune Read Free

it.’
    â€˜Justine now shows tact,’ murmured Aubrey.
    â€˜It is possible - it seems to be possible,’ said Edgar, ‘to be resting with closed eyes and give the impression of sleep.’
    â€˜You forget the snoring, Father,’ said Justine, in a voice so low and light as to escape her mother’s ears.
    â€˜If you don’t forget it too, I don’t know what we are to do,’ said Mark, in the same manner.
    â€˜Snoring is not proof of being asleep,’ said Dudley.
    â€˜But I was not snoring,’ said Blanche, in the easier tone of one losing grasp of a situation. ‘I should have known it myself. It would not be possible to be awake and make a noise and not hear it.’
    Justine gave an arch look at anyone who would receive it, Edgar did so as a duty and rapidly withdrew his eyes as another.
    â€˜Why do we not learn that no one ever snores under any circumstances?’ said Clement.
    â€˜I wonder how the idea of snoring arose,’ said Mark.
    â€˜Mother, are you going to eat no more than that?’ said Justine. ‘You are not ashamed of eating as well as of sleeping, I hope.’
    â€˜There has been no question of sleeping. And I am not ashamed of either. I always eat very well and I always sleep very badly. There is no connexion between them.’
    â€˜You seem to be making an exception in the first matter today,’ said her husband.
    â€˜Well, it upsets me to be contradicted, Edgar, and told that I do things when I don’t do them, and when I know quite well what I do, myself,’ said Blanche, almost flouncing in her chair.
    â€˜It certainly does, Mother dear. So we will leave it at that; that you know quite well what you do yourself.’
    â€˜It seems a reasonable conclusion,’ said Mark.
    â€˜I believe people always know that best,’ said Dudley. ‘If we could see ourselves as others see us, we should be much more misled, though people always talk as if we ought to try to do it.’
    â€˜They want us to be misled and cruelly,’ said his nephew.
    â€˜I don’t know,’ said Justine. ‘We might often meet a good, sound, impartial judgement.’
    â€˜And we know, when we have one described like that, what a dreadful judgement it is,’ said her uncle.
    â€˜Half the truth, the blackest of lies,’ said Mark.
    â€˜The whitest of lies really,’ said Clement. ‘Or there is no such thing as a white lie.’
    â€˜Well, there is not,’ said his sister. ‘Truth is truth and a lie is a lie.’
    â€˜What is Truth?’ said Aubrey. ‘Has Justine told us?’
    â€˜Truth is whatever happens to be true under the circumstances,’ said his sister, doing so at the moment. ‘We ought not to mind a searchlight being turned on our inner selves, if we are honest about them.’
    â€˜That is our reason,’ said Mark. ‘“Know thyself” is a most superfluous direction. We can’t avoid it.’
    â€˜We can only hope that no one else knows,’ said Dudley.
    â€˜Uncle, what nonsense!’ said Justine. ‘You are the most transparent and genuine person, the very last to say that.’
    â€˜What do you all really mean?’ said Edgar, speaking rather hurriedly, as if to check any further personal description.
    â€˜I think I only mean’, said his brother, ‘that human beings ought always to be judged very tenderly, and that no one will be as tender as themselves. “Remember what you owe to yourself” is another piece of superfluous advice.’
    â€˜But better than most advice,’ said Aubrey, lowering his voice as he ended. ‘More tender.’
    â€˜Now, little boy, hurry up with your breakfast,’ said Justine. ‘Mr Penrose will be here in a few minutes.’
    â€˜To pursue his life work of improving Aubrey,’ said Clement.
    â€˜Clement ought to have ended with a sigh,’ said Aubrey.