A Quiet Passion Page #3

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He dances like a polar bear.

And a prig.

Did you say something to him

to shock him?

Only that I'd just finished reading

Wuthering Heights.

And he was scandalised.

- Had he read it?

- No.

So I told him that to condemn

a novel he had not read

would be like going

to Sodom or Gomorrah

and being disappointed

that neither were Philadelphia.

I hope he had the presence

of mind to laugh.

He didn't.

He went very silent and the air became

charged with unspoken profanity.

It was delicious.

Now, I must go. Miss Buffam has a tryst.

- That sounds sinful.

- Hm.

I was told once, by a clergyman,

that I should repent my sins,

otherwise I would be pursued

by the Devil.

"Oh, a sort of spiritual Wells Fargo,"

I said.

He promptly went silent,

like patience on a monument.

Appalled but dumb.

For the lost soul,

there will be no tomorrow.

For the lost soul, today is quite enough.

Oh, I shall miss you if you ever go.

Your honesty is sublime.

In the long term,

honesty is not the best policy.

- Is dishonesty?

- I prefer to call it diplomacy.

That way, one can turn a tactical defeat

into a victory.

- Who proposed that?

- Oh, I don't know.

Probably George Washington as he was

crossing the Delaware. The wrong way.

Now, my own, I must fly.

Drive carefully,

and don't do anything against God.

- I'll stop yodelling, then.

- Very wise.

Quickly, Pendennis.

Before second thoughts set in.

Oh, come in, Emily.

- Shall I close the door?

- No. Leave it open.

It's lovely to hear the music.

It makes me recollect

when your father and I went

to our first commencement ball.

All those years ago.

This is my sister Lavinia.

But everyone calls me Vinnie.

And this is my other sister, Emily.

And everyone calls me Napoleon.

You come back married and a lawyer.

Harvard has clearly agreed with you,

Austin.

Even more agreeable

is that we now shall be neighbours.

Susan and I are moving

into The Evergreens, next door.

Another thunderbolt!

But a most welcome one.

Austin and I are to practise law.

Together.

Shingle has never sounded so lovely.

Is there no end to these wonders?

I welcome you both.

My son and his lovely bride.

His very lovely bride.

And this is the greatest wonder of all.

Mother coming down from Mount Olympus.

Oh...

Emily, as usual, dramatises.

I live a very quiet life.

No one would know I was here.

But if you weren't,

oh, what a chasm you would leave.

Bees in the lavender

Then the lazy owl

Will you marry?

I suppose in time I shall.

Isn't that what we all do, in the end?

I don't know.

I can't imagine myself beyond my family.

Amongst strangers.

You are a strange creature, with

more depth, I suspect, than any of us.

How can you say that?

I haven't demonstrated that at all.

Oh, my dear, you don't demonstrate,

you reveal.

When you eventually do go away,

will you write?

I do not possess the propensity

for long correspondence.

- I suspect I have a trivial mind.

- But a good heart.

Don't let sentiment

cloud your judgement, Emily.

Should my future husband

put me out of humour,

he will think he has married

one of the minor Borgias.

Will you marry?

I only want my family.

It is not perfect.

It is not Paradise.

But it is far better

than anything I could know.

Or want.

When you do marry...

- I shall miss you.

- Of course you shall miss me.

I refuse to be forgotten.

Emily.

Make sure your bread is ready

for the agricultural fair tomorrow.

Yes. I haven't forgotten.

They feel swollen.

They are swollen, like my feet.

Oh!

Aah!

Miss Emily?

Will you please get my bread

out of the oven?

It doesn't need all three of you

to pick it up!

I believe you spoke sharply to Thomas,

Margaret and Maggie yesterday.

- Yes, Father.

- They must be treated with respect.

They are not servants, but employees.

What was that for?

For pointing out so eloquently

the distinction between the two.

I was very impolite yesterday.

I would like to apologise

to all three of you.

Er, no offence taken.

Then may I take it that I am forgiven?

For I am truly sorry.

But we have good news, miss.

Your bread won five dollars.

Then you must keep the money.

It will ease my conscience.

It took second prize.

Oh. Second prize.

What does it feel like to be a father,

Austin?

Fatherly.

May I hold him?

- We're calling him Edward.

- Ned, for short.

I'm nobody! Who are you?

Are you nobody, too?

Then there's a pair of us - don't tell!

They'd banish us, you know.

How dreary to be somebody!

How public, like a frog

To tell one's name the livelong day

To an admiring bog!

Father? What is it?

Fort Sumter has been fired upon.

What does this mean?

It is thought that

the South will secede from the Union.

Then it means civil war.

Does this mean you will be drafted,

Austin?

Almost certainly.

You will remain here.

But, Father, my friends will fight.

I cannot stay at home.

I will pay the $500 bond so that

a substitute may fight in your place.

- What about my honour, sir?

- Your honour, sir, will be safe in my hands.

And my conscience, Father?

What of that?

It will be best if your conscience

found solace in you doing your filial duty.

For those who will die in this civil war,

"filial duty" will seem like cowardice.

No young man of breeding

would make such a remark.

No gentleman would provoke it!

- Austin.

You are my only son.

I cannot see your life put at risk.

Please, Father, don't make me stay.

You are not to go! I forbid it!

I will remain here.

To fight aloud, is very brave -

But gallanter, I know

Who charge within the bosom

The Cavalry of Woe -

Who win, and nations do not see -

Who fall - and none observe -

Whose dying eyes, no Country

Regards with patriot love -

We trust, in plumed procession,

For such, the Angels go -

Rank after Rank, with even feet -

And Uniforms of snow.

There is a word

Which bears a sword

Can pierce an armed man.

It hurls its barbed syllables, -

And once is mute again.

But where it fell

The saved will tell

On patriotic day,

Some epauletted brother

Gave his breath away

Wherever runs the breathless sun,

Wherever roams the day,

There is its noiseless onset,

There its victory!

We went to Gettysburg

to hear the speeches.

Mr Edward Everett spoke

for nearly two hours.

- Very rousing.

- And the President's speech?

Mr Lincoln

was shocking in his brevity.

He spoke for about three minutes.

Not memorable.

Were there many there

to hear the orations?

- Some said fifteen thousand.

Most of them looking for breakfast,

or trying to find souvenirs of the battle.

Macabre.

They say that over

six hundred thousand men have perished.

And for what?

To end slavery, which should never have

flourished in this country in the first place.

Miss Buffam has had

too great an influence over you, Emily.

If more men were as outspoken as

Miss Buffam, we may not have had a war.

How dare you trivialise it in that way?

The conflict was not about gender.

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