The Song of the Siren

“But they really were concerned,” went on my grandmother. “Wouldn’t it be strange if they took Grasslands?”

“There’s something about them I don’t like,” said my mother, and there was a strange expression on her face as though she had drawn a veil over her features to hide what she really felt.

“They seemed pleasant enough,” said my grandmother.

”And to have the means to buy the place,” added my grandfather.

“Carlotta showed her over Enderby Hall,” said my mother. “And then she decided not to let. She must have taken a dislike to her.”

“Oh, it was just one of Carlotta’s whims,” said my grandmother. “That couldn’t have had anything to do with Elizabeth Pilkington. She just did not want to sell the house.”

“It will be strange if you have found a buyer for Grasslands, Damaris.”

I thought it would be strange too. I rather hoped I had. I thought it would be rather pleasant to have the Pilkingtons as neighbours.

The next day Matthew Pilkington called.

I was in the hall when he arrived so I was the first to greet him. He was carrying a big bunch of violets.

He smiled at me. He was very handsome-in fact I think the most handsome man I had ever seen. Perhaps his clothes helped. He was wearing a mulberry-coloured velvet jacket and a very fine waistcoat. From the pockets low down in his coat a frilly white kerchief showed. His stick hung on a ribbon from his wrist. He wore high-heeled shoes which made him look very tall-he must be of a considerable height without them; and the tongue of his shoe stuck up well above the instep, which, I had learned since coming to London, was the very height of fashion. In one hand he held his hat, which was of a deep shade of blue, almost violet. In fact his clothes toned beautifully with the flowers, so that I could almost have believed he had chosen them for that purpose. But of course that could not be so, violets having a special significance.

I felt myself flushing with pleasure.

He bowed low, took my hand and kissed it.

“I see you have recovered from your adventure. I came to enquire and I have brought these for your mother so that she shall not be without what you braved so much to get for her.”

“Oh, but that is so good of you,” I said. I took the flowers and held them to my nose, inhaling the fragrance.

“From the best flower seller in London,” he said. “I got them in the | Covent Garden Piazza this morning.”

“She will be so pleased. You must come in.” I took him into the little winter parlour which led from the hall. ‘ “Please sit down,” I said.

He put his hat on the table in the hall and followed me.

“So,” he said, “you are returning to the country tomorrow. I am sorry about that.

My mother would so liked to have entertained you. She is anxious to hear more of this house which is for sale.” »

“It’s a very pleasant house,” I said.

“I wonder why the owners left it.”

“The wife died having a baby and her husband can’t forget. He came from the north originally and has gone back there. They were very great friends of ours and we have offered to show people the house if they are thinking of buying it. My grandmother has the keys at Eversleigh House.”

“And what about this other house?”

“Enderby. Well, that is a fine house too, but it has the reputation of being haunted.”

“My mother was most impressed by it.”

“Yes, but Carlotta, my sister, who owns it, decided not to sell. It was left to her, you see, by the previous owner, who was a relative.”

“I see, and Enderby remains empty.”

“It is extraordinary. Carlotta’s whim, my grandfather calls it.”

“Where is your sister?”

“She is married now and lives in Sussex. She has the dearest little baby. Tell me, do you live in London?”

“Well, I have a place in the country-in Dorset-a small estate to look after. I am there sometimes and sometimes with my mother in London. Of course now that there is war I may join the army.”

I frowned. My mother hated wars so fiercely that she had imbued me with the same feeling.

“It seems ridiculous that we should concern ourselves with the problems of other countries,” I said. “Why should what happens in Europe matter to us?”

I was really repeating what I had heard my mother say.

He said: “It is not quite as simple as that. Louis the Fourteenth, the French King, made an agreement with our late King and he has broken that agreement. His grandson Philip of Anjou has been made King of Spain. You see France will be dominating Europe.

He has already put garrisons into the towns of the Spanish Netherlands. Worst of all he has acknowledged the son of James the Second as James the Third of England.

War has been declared and we have strong allies in Holland and the Austrian Empire. It is necessary to go to war, you see.”

“So you may become a soldier. My father was a soldier once. He gave it up. My mother was so much against it. He bought the Dower House at Eversleigh and farms the land there and looks after his tenants; he works with my grandfather, who is getting old now. You met him yesterday. My uncle Carl is in the army and so is my uncle Edwin.