The Middle Age of Mrs Eliot Read Free Page B

workers are here to administer the society’s funds for the benefit of the old people. It’s nothing to do with her whether old Mrs T. chooses to spend the little she gets on gin so long as the old creature doesn’t let herself go downhill. It’s her job to relieve the poor old thing’s loneliness, not to moralize about the results of it. We’re not a temperance society. I’m more and more convinced that we can’t afford untrained people. It’s a false economy. Indeed it would be a very good thing if the committee had to attend the course, though I’m sure very few of us would get our certificates or what have you.’
    ‘Well, Meg dear, when you get back from your junketing in the East, you must enrol.’ Lady Pirie checked Meg Eliot’s enthusiasm by a dry mother-to-daughter manner, ‘I’ll suggest it to the committee while you’re away.’
    ‘I’ll volunteer gladly if you will, Viola.’Meg winked at Mr Darlington .
    ‘Splendid,’ he said, ‘now we’re getting somewhere.’
    ‘We all ought to be getting on with our work,’ Lady Pirie said. ‘I’ve got to feed a hungry son, Meg. I don’t have Italians to do my housekeeping. And I’ve no doubt Mr Darlington’s got plenty to do as well.’
    ‘It’s nice for Mr Darlington to do nothing for a change, I think.’ Meg announced it simply as a fact.
    Lady Pirie said, ‘He’d probably like to choose his own place and time for that. Missing trains because of a lot of women’s gossip …’
    Meg, laughing, interrupted, ‘A lot of women’s gossip perhaps, Viola, but not mine. You’d miss a train for me, wouldn’t you, Mr Darlington?’
    ‘I’ve plenty of trains, Mrs Eliot …’ he began, but Lady Pirie said, ‘You may have, but I’ve got a lot of shopping to do and I’m relying on Mrs Eliot for a lift. Besides, she has a long and tiring journey ahead of her. I know you’re an experienced traveller, Meg, but you don’t fly about to the East and Australia every day. You’re going to need all your energies. What on earth you’re giving this party this evening for, I can’t think.’
    ‘We thought our old friends would like to say good-bye to us.’ Meg assumed a mock pained expression, but Lady Pirie would not be teased.
    ‘Good-byes,’ she said. ‘A lot of fudge.’
    She sounded so cross that Mr Darlington, professionally conditioned to compose quarrels, called all his tact to the aid of the situation.
    ‘We shall miss you very much, Mrs Eliot. A lot can happen in six months. There’s this business of Mrs Chorley, for instance. I don’t know what you think, but Aid to the Elderly’s never contributed before where there’s a rich family in the background.’
    Meg Eliot shifted squarely in her seat. She seemed to mark the change to a more serious topic by her new posture.
    ‘If she really wants to remain independent of her family then I think we must consider her eligible for help. But there can’t be any of this preferential treatment for distressed gentlewomen if that’s what she’s after.’
    ‘I think she’s difficult,’ Mr Darlington began.
    Lady Pirie laid her huge bucket bag heavily down on the table.
    ‘Mr Darlington,’ she said, ‘this is all coming up at the next committee meeting. It’s quite improper to discuss it now. In the first place Mrs Eliot won’t be here, so I’m afraid her opinions aren’t going to help us. In the second place you know very well that many members of the committee have strong views on the subject. The secretary’s job is to advise the committee, not to try to make up their minds for them.’
    The rather sour smile with which she accompanied her rebuke was so patently the formal softening of an order to a subordinate that it only added to Mr Darlington’s embarrassment. He seemed to look to Mrs Eliot for support, but such as she gave was indirect. Getting up from her seat, she held out her hand to him.
    ‘Good-bye,’ she said, ‘I look to you to keep the flag of good sense flying