Authors: Mazo de la Roche
Tags: #FIC045000 – FICTION / Sagas
Sarah looked statue-white and still, as her sisters-in-law went into the room. But when she opened her eyes they were bright with bliss. She gave her small, secret smile.
“Isn’t he beautiful?” she asked.
“Perfectly sweet,” answered Pheasant.
“And to think he came at Christmas time! We’re calling him Holly for a pet name. Oh, if only Finch could see him! He must come! I’ve made Maurice cable him. He must see the baby in his first exquisiteness. Did you ever see such skin — such eyes? I always knew he’d be beautiful but I never dreamed of anything like this. I shall live for him. How thankful I am I got him safely out of England! Tell Patience to bring him, Meg. I can’t bear him out of my sight.”
Patience brought him and Sarah curved her body about him like, as Pheasant said on the way to Jalna, a cat about its kitten.
“I always knew she’d be like that,” said Piers. “Three cheers for Finch! He’s freed himself. He’ll never be of any importance to Sarah again, mark my words.”
Wakefield exclaimed: —
“If the baby has accomplished that he’s my favourite nephew!”
“‘My name is joy!’” quoted Molly. “‘I am but two days old!’”
“I wish we all were,” said Piers. “The four of us. On our way to the Christmas Tree with a comforter in each of our mouths. Instead of which I’m Santa Claus.”
“Are you really?” said Molly.
“Wait till you see him. He’s grand.”
Piers looked modestly pleased. “I do my best. Having the ruddy countenance and the portly form necessary, I’m not so bad.”
Molly found herself enfolded in an atmosphere of Christmas bustle such as she had never before known. The Dinner rose, like a succulent mountain to be demolished, before the climax of the Tree was reached. The sitting room, a sweet-smelling fortress, was still unstormed. Through the other rooms and up and down the stairs children and dogs circled, raced, shouted, and barked. The baritone and tenor voices of seven men made a rich masculine background for the voices of women and children. Rags flew here and there with trays of sherry and biscuits. The children were eating the sweets from their stockings in spite of their mothers’ warnings.
Parry Court had known but meagre celebrations in his home, though he had invariably travelled from wherever he was to be with his parents at that season. Here he was gayest of them all. Piers and he kept the children in a gale of excitement. He was more congenial to Piers than any brother he had. Parry, as a good rider and a lover of good farm stock, had been of real help in the past months at Jalna. By skillfully playing Renny against Piers he had made both believe he had worked much harder than actually was the case. Everybody liked him. To the old men he seemed atrociously modern, yet sympathetic and with the high spirits of the young men of their day. In the past two months Ernest had found him a real comfort. Of all those under the roof, Pheasant was the least happy, for she was always thinking of Mooey.
Archer’s usually pale face showed a bright pink cheek. He was drunk with half-mad expectancy and present hilarity. He had shouted till he was hoarse. He did not even hear his mother’s warnings. He stalked, a tiny and ruthless bandit, through the forest of the grownups. He did not care what he did. He would as lief hurl his drumstick at the head of Santa Claus as not. He could not eat his dinner and its most savoury smell was nothing compared to the smell filtering through the keyhole of the sitting room.
Old Merlin had not felt so well in months as he did today. Again and again he raised his rich voice and declared that this was so. He had had an injury to a toenail and one forepaw was bandaged. This he held up to each new arrival for sympathy, then told how well he felt. He was the only one of the dogs which Alayne allowed in the dining room. Proudly, with waving tail, he walked past the other dogs, scenting their envy, and took his place by Renny’s chair.
It was a tribute to the carving powers of the master of Jalna that each one of the seventeen people about the table had been served with a suitable portion of the glistening brown turkey and that he himself had swallowed two bites of his own portion before the seventh served (who was Piers) applied for a fresh helping. Rags came tottering in pretended exhaustion under the weight of a second turkey and Renny, desperately filling his mouth and with a flourish of the carving knife, attacked it.
After the dark succulence of the pudding — which was the one part of the dinner Archer craved, refusing to eat the jelly and cream provided by Alayne — came the crackers. Finch had sent these from London and, to show their appreciation, everyone said he had never heard crackers crack so loudly before or seen such splendid headdresses come out of them.
Ernest put on a pink frilled bonnet for a moment, then, out of deference to Harriet’s memory, took it off. There was delight when a jockey’s cap came out of Renny’s cracker. It became him just a little too well. Alayne thought, and wished he were not so excessively pleased with it. Wonder of wonders, Archer drew a judge’s wig and sat glowering at the company from under it as though for two pins he would pronounce a drastic sentence on each one.
Piers disappeared.
What a jostling there was in the hall! Rags had built too great a fire in the stove, so that it was unbearably hot. Then someone had flung open the front door and the icy air, bright with fine snow particles, came flying in.
Ernest was roasting on one side and freezing on the other. He demanded: —
“Who opened that door?”
Paris answered, “I’m afraid I did, sir. Shall I close it?”
“Yes, do, or I shall be in bed tomorrow.”
Someone stepped on the sheep dog’s toe and he yelped in agony.
“Who did that?” shouted Renny.
“It was Uncle Nick.”
Nicholas glowered. “It was not. I’m miles from the dog.”
Young Philip at the keyhole cried — “The candles on the Tree are lighted!”
Meg swept him from the keyhole and blocked it with her plump person.
“What are we waiting for?” asked Archer.
“Santa Claus, you little silly,” answered Roma.
“I thought he came last night.”
“He did, but he’s coming again.”
Renny swung him to his shoulder. “Wait and see.”
Wake said to Molly — “I wonder if you’ll like your present.”
She asked — “Is it large, small, square, round, soft, or hard?”
“It’s small, round, and hard.”
“Is it something lasting?”
“It will last forever.”
Maurice exclaimed, “What the dickens is the matter in there? Thump on the door. Meggie.”
Meg began a steady thumping.
“We want Santa Claus!” everybody sang out in unison.
“Where is Daddy?” asked Nook.
Archer, from Renny’s shoulder, whined: —
“I’m hungry. I want my tea.”
“My goodness,” cried Patience. “You’ve just had a Christmas dinner.”
“I don’t remember.”
Alayne came to Renny’s side.
“I think I’d better take him back to the dining room and give him something to eat,” she said. “He can come to the Tree later.”
“He won’t go.”
“I think he will. Will you come with Mother, Archer?”
“I don’t know. Try me.”
She attempted to lift him down but the moment she touched him he screamed. She desisted.
“Now I know,” he said, with puckered brow. “I don’t want to go.”
“The door is open!” cried Adeline. She was first to enter the room.
There was the Tree, its spicy boughs bending beneath the weight of many bright packets. Frost powder gleamed in the light of a hundred little wax candles. Gay-coloured fish, birds and cornucopias trembled on the tips of the branches, and on the topmost twig hovered a pink cherub that had delighted Renny and Meg when they were small. From behind the Tree a burly blue-eyed Santa Claus appeared and demanded of the children whether or not they had been good.
Roma, Nook, and Philip had no doubts of Santa Claus. Patience and Adeline knew he was Uncle Piers but the glamour of his costume, the authentic gleam in his eyes, his jovial laugh, swept them along to willing acceptance of him. The Tree was half stripped of presents when Archer exclaimed, in a piercing whisper: —
“Why, Santa Claus has got on Uncle Piers’s new boots.”
He was swept up by Rags and carried to the basement, where, on his old tricycle, he pedaled round and round the kitchen, into the larder and down the brick-paved passage to the coal cellar, relieved to be rid of the burden of so much merrymaking.
Molly could scarcely believe in her present from Wakefield, it was so beautiful. Old Adeline had, in her will, left an article of jewelry to each of her grandsons for his wife or his prospective wife. None of the family would ever forget the scene between Meg and Piers when this clause was read, for Pheasant was already the possessor of a ruby ring given to Adeline by an Indian Rajah.
Renny had kept one of the most valuable of the rings for Wakefield. It was a cluster of five diamonds exquisitely placed in the old-fashioned low setting. Wakefield had had the stones polished and the family had scarcely realized their beauty till they saw the ring gleaming on Molly’s thin young hand.
“The stones would be still more brilliant,” said Wakefield, “if they were cut in the modern way.”
“They’re perfect,” she answered, laying her left hand on her right as though it did not belong to her but now had a separate and superior life of its own.
The excitement of the Tree was over and in the dimness of the hall, among the dogs, they kissed for the third time that day.
“Let’s go out for some air,” he said. “The children are making snowballs. Will you come?”
“How lovely! I’ve never made a snowball in my life.” She ran upstairs to get her things.
“Wrap yourself up!” he called after her. “It’s turning very cold.”
In the cupboard under the stairs he found his old windbreaker and cap with ear muffs, his goloshes. He felt as though he had never been away from home as he rummaged through the miscellaneous collection there.
Outside this cupboard was the door that led into his grandmother’s room. He had not been inside the room since his return. Now he opened the door and stepped in. It was lighted by a red shaft of light from the lowering sun, he looked about him almost timidly. He could remember everything in this room since his first consciousness. Nothing was changed except that the tall old figure stretched on the richly coloured leather bed, or seated in the wing chair, was missing and the gay-plumaged parrot on the perch was the stuffed figure of Boney who had died two years before. It was all so real yet so unreal.Wakefield said, in a low voice: —
“My Grandmother, I’ve just given your ring to Molly and she loves it.”
He heard Molly coming down the stairs and went to meet her.
“Oh, how quaint you look!” she exclaimed. “Wherever did you get the cap?”
“I’ve had it for ages. What do you suppose I’ve been doing?”
“What?”
“I’ve been telling Gran that I’ve given you her ring. Her room’s back there.”
Molly looked a little startled. “Wake, you do say odd things.”
He laid his head on her shoulder. “Molly,” he said, “you must always love me. I suddenly feel afraid to look ahead. There’s so much can happen.”
“I’ll always love you. Wake,” she promised.
Renny, Piers, Pheasant, Paris, and all the children were romping in the snow. The dogs went tumbling through the door to take their part, none more eager than Merlin. When Wakefield appeared, Pheasant threw a snowball at him.
“Here comes the matinee idol!” she cried.
“He’s getting quite above himself,” said Piers. “Let’s roll him over, Renny!”
The two elder brothers made for Wake. He was helpless. Molly was positively alarmed for him but Pheasant and the children laughed. When at last he was freed he was white from head to foot. His cheeks were scarlet.
“Thank God for ear muffs!” he said.
Piers sprang up and caught a snow-weighted branch of hemlock in his hands and hung there. The snow came down in a miniature storm, enveloping Molly. The children surrounded her, bearing her down. Adeline leaped on to Parry’s back and he galloped with her, her hair bright as a flame.
Molly felt that never before had she met with really high spirits. There was something reckless in their gayety. It was as though they realized more than others the shortness of life and would live it to its full.
They found the path to the stream and scrambled down its bank. They swept the stream with pine boughs and made a slide. Everyone slid but none compared to the long, swift, eagle slide of Renny. Molly’s eyes were always following him.
“You’re always watching Renny,” said Wake, his eyes narrowing. “Is he so fascinating then?”
“No. I don’t know. I think it’s just that he’s so different from anyone I’ve known.”
Once more the stab of jealousy pierced Wake’s heart.
“Renny’s old enough,” he said coldly, “to be your father.”
She stared. “Well, what of that?”
“Nothing!” he answered. “Nothing — of course — nothing!”
But he was happy again when, in the drawing room, Rags, with a pontifical air, carried a tray of raisins, blazing in brandy, up and down the room. The children danced about him, striving to snatch a handful of the fruit but terrified of the blaze. The grownups joined in. It was Alayne who coolly thrust her hand into the flame and divided the spoils among the children.
Nicholas sat puffing at his pipe, his eyes shining. A good Christmas, he thought, and wondered what would have happened by next Christmas.
TAKING DOWN THE WREATHS
A
S ALWAYS THE
Christmas greens were taken down on Twelfth Night. As long as they remained there seemed a kind of spiritual barrier between Jalna and the war. Though they dried and their needles were scattered on the floor and holly berries lay withered on the sills, even Alayne said — “Let us leave them till the last moment.”
But after Twelfth Night it would be unlucky to preserve them, so down came the wreaths and the Christmas Tree, in all its majesty, was borne from the house. All were mounded in the little field between the kitchen garden and orchard. There was a great crackling blaze as the wreaths subsided to ash and a smell like incense was given off.