Lord Mullion's Secret Read Online Free PDF Page B

another.
    â€˜Oh, Swithin,’ Patty said, ‘that would be perfectly splendid!’ There was a small silence. It marked, on Swithin’s part, a remorseless registering that she had, for the first time, said something stupid and insensitive; had, in fact, started villaging.
    â€˜It wouldn’t exactly be high life,’ Swithin said dryly. ‘But it might he a foot in the door.’
    â€˜I meant something like that, Swithin. And I didn’t mean to gush.’
    Swithin, who had momentarily withdrawn tautly within himself, relaxed again. The effect, although not designed as extravagant, was rather that of a young Olympian in sudden effulgence. His glance, however, was less that of a divinity upon a mortal than of one operating the other way on. It was the wondering glance, more frankly accented this time than hitherto.
    â€˜That was very nice of you, Lady Patience,’ he said.
    â€˜We must plan for it,’ Patty said soberly. ‘And my father would be interested, I know. Perhaps he isn’t very informed about such things himself. But he’s certain to know the people who are. Shall I–’
    â€˜Then I may speak to his lordship,’ Swithin said calmly. ‘If you think it a good idea, that is.’ He paused. ‘And now I’d better be getting on with the wallflowers. Perhaps you’ll come and look at the effect later, m’lady.’
    For a moment Patty felt that she had been abruptly dismissed. Then she realized that this wasn’t the state of the case at all. She had known – clearly although through some bewilderment – that it was high time to bring this encounter to a close. And Swithin Gore, if he hadn’t agreed, had understood. She hadn’t been dismissed. She had been – for today she had been – let off.

 
    Â 
4
    Swithin Gore went on with his job of planting out the biennials. Whether he enjoyed doing so, or enjoyed his horticultural employment in general, we don’t yet know. Nothing positively to throw light on the question have we heard pass between Lady Patience and himself. She, indeed, believes he takes pleasure in his work because if he didn’t he wouldn’t be as efficient at it as he is. This reasoning is insecure. The fact that Swithin hopes to go to a polytechnic tells us little. Everything under the sun is (in a fashion) taught in such places – including, perhaps, how to become a municipal gardener in a big way. Mr Pring, the head gardener at Mullion Castle and so Swithin’s boss, would prefer his present situation to gardening all Bournemouth. But Mr Pring (like Dr Atlay, the vicar) has old-fashioned notions, and believes that there is something aristocratic about working for the aristocracy. There is no reason to suppose that Swithin Gore adopts this view – although he may, just at present, have a very decided motive for holding down his job with one particular aristocratic household.
    Not that Swithin’s job is under threat. Mr Pring thinks well of him, although he has at times been disposed to feel that the boy is a little too prone to keeping his own concerns and intentions firmly under his thatch. Indeed, Mr Pring thinks better of Swithin than he does of his other two assistants, since it is Swithin alone who can be relied upon to carry out instructions unmarred by ludicrous misconception. And even if Mr Pring disapproved of Swithin (as thinking too well of himself – which is the verdict upon him of his two fellows) it is probable that Swithin would get away with it. For of the Mullion household in its extended sense he is what an academic society would describe as a gremial member, having been born within the Mullion protestas , nurtured in its lap, bred up within its servitude, and thus assured of its protection. In fact there is an aspect of things, active at least in Lord Mullion’s mind, in which Mr Pring himself, because hired in middle life, possesses a