Dodie Smith - I Capture the Castle

lust. Father came down for tea and was not too pleased that Topaz had dyed his yellow cardigan--it is now the color of very old moss. And he thought our arms being green up to the elbows was revolting.

We had real butter for tea because Mr. Stebbins gave Stephen some when he went over to fix about working (he started at the farm this

morning); and Mrs.

Stebbins had sent a comb of honey. Stephen put them down in my place

so I felt like a hostess. I shouldn't think even millionaires could

eat anything nicer than new bread and real butter and honey for tea.

I have rarely heard such rain as there was during the meal. I am never happy when the elements go to extremes; I don't think I am frightened, but I imagine the poor countryside being battered until I end by

feeling battered myself. Rose is just the opposite--it is as if she is egging the weather on, wanting louder claps of thunder and positively encouraging forked lightning. She went to the door while it was

raining and reported that the garden was completely flooded.

"The lane'll be like a river," she remarked with satisfaction, not being a girl to remember that Thomas would have to ride his bicycle

down it within an hour--he was staying late at school for a lecture.

Father said:

"Let me add to your simple pleasure in Nature's violence by reminding you that there will shortly be at least six glorious new leaks in our roof."

There was one in the kitchen already; Stephen put a bucket under it. I told him the two attic leaks had started before I came down but there were buckets under them. He went to see if they were overflowing and

returned to say that there were four more leaks. We had run out of

buckets so he collected three saucepans and the soup-tureen.

"Maybe I'd best stay up there and empty them as they fill," he said.

He took a book and some candle-ends and I thought how gloomy it would be for him reading poetry in the middle of six drips.

We washed the tea-things; then Rose and Topaz went to the wash-house to shake out the dyed sheets. Father stayed by the fire, waiting for the rain to stop before going back to the gatehouse. He sat very still,

just staring in front of him. It struck me how completely out of touch with him I am. I went over and sat on the fender and talked about the weather; and then realized that I was making conversation as if to a

stranger. It depressed me so much that I couldn't think of anything

more to say. After a few minutes' silence, he said:

"So Stephen got work at Four Stones."

I just nodded and he looked at me rather queerly and asked if I liked Stephen. I said that of course I did, though the poems were

embarrassing.

"You should tell him you know he copies them," said Father.

"You'll know how to do it- encourage him to write something of his own, however bad it is. And be very matter of fact with him, my child--even a bit on the brisk side."

"But I don't think he'd like that," I said.

"I

think he'd take briskness for snubbing. And you know how fond of me

he's always been."

"Hence the need for a little briskness," said Father.

"Unless .... Of course, he's a godlike youth. I'm rather glad he's not devoted to Rose," I must have been looking very much puzzled. He smiled and went on: "Oh, don't bother your head about it.

You've so much common sense you'll probably do the right thing

instinctively. It's no use telling Topaz to advise you because she'd

think it all very splendid and natural--and for all I know, it might

be. God knows what's to become of you girls."

I suddenly knew what he was talking about.

"I understand," I said, "and I'll be brisk- within reason."

But I wonder if I shall ever manage it. And I wonder if it is really

necessary--surely Stephen's devotion isn't anything serious or

grown-up? But now that the idea has been put into my head, I keep

remembering how queer his voice sounded when he asked me about being

hungry. It is worrying--but rather exciting .. . I shall stop thinking about it; such things are not in my line at all. They are very much in Rose's line and I know just what Father meant when he said he was glad Stephen wasn't devoted to her.

Topaz came from the wash-house and set irons to heat, so Father

changed the subject by asking me if I'd dyed all my clothes green. I

said I had few to dye.

"Any long dresses at all?" he asked.

"Nary a one," I replied; and, indeed, I cannot see the slightest chance of ever acquiring grownup clothes.

"But my school gym-dress has a lot of life in it yet and it's very comfortable."

"I must alter something of mine for her," said Topaz as she went back to the wash-house. I felt my lack of clothes was a reflection on

Father and, in an effort to talk of something else, said the most

tactless thing possible.

"How's the work ?" I asked.

A closed-up look came over his face and he said shortly: "You're too old to believe in fairy tales."

I knew I had put my foot in it and thought I might as well go a bit

further.

"Honestly, Father- aren't you trying to write at all?"

"My dear Cassandra," he said in a cutting voice he very seldom uses,

"it's time this legend that I'm a writer ceased. You won't get any coming-out dresses from my earnings."

He got up without another word and went upstairs. I could have kicked myself for wrecking the first talk we'd had for months.

Thomas came in just then, wet through. I warned him not to use

Father's bedroom as a passage, as we usually do, and he went up the

front way. I took him some dry underclothes--fortunately the week's

ironing was done--and then went up to see how Stephen was getting on.

He had stuck the candle-ends on the floor, close to his open book, and was reading lying on his stomach.

His face was dazzlingly bright in the great dark attic -- I stood a

moment watching his lips moving before he heard me. The saucepans were on the point of overflowing. As I helped him to empty them out of the window I saw that the lamp was lit in the gatehouse, so Father must

have gone back there through the rain. It was slackening off at last.

The air smelt very fresh. I leaned out over the garden and found it

was much warmer than indoors--it always takes our house a while to

realize a change in the weather.

"It'll be spring for you soon, Miss Cassandra," said Stephen. We stood sniffing the air.

"There's quite a bit of softness in it, isn't there ?"

I said.

"I shall think of this as spring rain -or am I cheating his You know I always try to begin the spring too soon."

He leaned out and took a deep sniff.

"It's beginning all right, Miss Cassandra," he said.

"Maybe we'll get some setbacks but it's beginning." He suddenly smiled, not at me but looking straight in front of him, and added:

"Well, beginnings are good times." Then he closed the window and we put the saucepans back under the drips, which played a little ringing tune now that the saucepans were empty. The candle-ends on the floor

cast the strangest shadows and made him seem enormously tall. I

remembered what Father had said about his being a godlike youth; and

then I remembered that I had not remembered to be brisk.

We went back to the kitchen and I got Thomas some food.

Topaz was ironing her silk tea-gown, which looked wonderful-it had been a faded blue, but had dyed a queer sea-green color.

I think the sight of it made Rose extra gloomy. She was starting to

iron a cotton frock that hadn't dyed any too well.

"Oh, what's the use of messing about with summer clothes, anyway," she said.

"I can't imagine it ever being warm again."

"There's quite a bit of spring in the air tonight," I told her.

"You go out and smell it."

Rose never gets emotional about the seasons so she took no notice, but Topaz went to the door at once and flung it open. Then she threw her

head back, opened her arms wide and took a giant breath.

"It's only a whiff of spring, not whole lungs full," I said, but she was too rapt to listen. I quite expected her to plunge into the night, but after some more deep breathing she went upstairs to try on her

tea-gown.

"It beats me," said Rose.

"After all this time, I still don't know if she goes on that way because she really feels like it, if she's acting to impress us, or

just acting to impress herself."

"All three," I said.

"And as it helps her to enjoy life, I don't blame her."

Rose went to close the door and stood there a minute, but the night air didn't cheer her up at all. She slammed the door and said: "If I knew anything desperate to do, I'd do it."

"What's specially the matter with you, Rose?"

asked Thomas.

"You've been beating your breast for days and it's very boring. We can at least get a laugh out of Topaz, but you're just monotonously

grim."

"Don't talk with your mouth full," said Rose.

"I feel grim. I haven't any clothes, I haven't any prospects. I live in a moldering ruin and I've nothing to look forward to but old age."

"Well, that's been the outlook for years," said Thomas.

"Why has it suddenly got you down?"

"It's the long, cold winter," I suggested.

"It's the long, cold winter of my life," said Rose, at which Thomas laughed so much that he choked.

Rose had the sense to laugh a little herself. She came and sat on the table, looking a bit less glowering.

"Stephen," she said, "you go to church. Do they still believe in the Devil there?"

"Some do," said Stephen, "though I wouldn't say the Vicar did."

"The Devil's out of fashion," I said.

"Then he might be flattered if I believed in him, and work extra hard for me. I'll sell him my soul like Faust did."

"Faust sold his soul to get his youth back," said Thomas.

"Then I'll sell mine to live my youth while I've still got it," said Rose.

"Will he hear me if I shout, or do I have to find a Devil's Dyke or Devil's Well or something?"

"You could try wishing on our gargoyle," I suggested. Although she was so desperate, she was--well, more playful than I had seen her for a

long time and I wanted to encourage her.

"Get me the ladder, Stephen," she said.

What we call our gargoyle is really just a carved stone head high above the kitchen fireplace. Father thinks the castle chapel was up there,

because there are some bits of fluted stonework and a niche that might have been for holy water. The old wall has been white washed so often that the outlines are blurred now.

"The ladder wouldn't reach, Miss Rose," said Stephen, "and the Vicar says that's the head of an angel."

"Well, it's got a devilish expression now," said Rose, "and the Devil was a fallen angel."

We all stared up at the head and it did look a bit devilish;

its curls had been broken and the bits that were left were horns.

"Perhaps it would be extra potent if you wished on an angel and thought of the Devil," I suggested, "like witches saying mass backwards."

"We could haul you up on the drying-rack, Rose," said Thomas.

The rack was pulled up high with the dyed sheets on it. Rose told

Stephen to let it down, but he looked at me to see if I wanted him

to.

She frowned and went to the pulley herself. I said:

"If you must fool about with it, let me get the sheets off first."

So she lowered them and Stephen helped me to drape them over two

clothes-horses. Thomas held the rope while she sat on the middle of

the rack and tested its strength.

"The rack'll bear you," said Stephen.

"I helped make it and it's very strong. I don't know about the rope and pulleys."

I went and sat beside her, feeling that if the weight of both of us

didn't break anything it would be safe for her alone. I knew from the look in her eye and her deep flush that it wasn't any use trying to

dissuade her. We bounced about a bit and then she said:

"Good enough. Pull me up."

Stephen went to help Thomas.

"But not you, Miss Cassandra," he said, "it's dangerous."

"I suppose you don't mind me breaking my neck," said Rose.

"Well, I'd rather you didn't," said Stephen, "but I know you wouldn't stop for the asking. Anyway, it's you who want to wish on the angel,

not Miss Cassandra."

I'd have been glad to wish on anything, but I wouldn't have gone up

there for a pension.

"It's a devil, not an angel, I tell you," said Rose. She sat swinging her legs a minute, then looked round at us all.

"Does anyone dare me?"

"No!" we all shouted, which must have been very irritating. She said:

"Then I dare myself. Haul me up."

Thomas and Stephen hauled. When she was about ten feet from the floor, I asked them to stop a minute.

"How does it feel, Rose ?" I said.

"Peculiar, but a nice change. Go on, boys."

They pulled again. The carved head must be over twenty feet up and as she rose higher and higher I had an awful feeling in my stomach--I

don't think I had realized until then how very dangerous it was. When she was within a few feet of the head, Stephen called up: "That's as high as the rack'll go."

She reached up but couldn't touch the head. Then she called down:

"There's a foothold here--it looks as if there were steps once."

The next second she had leaned forward, grasped a projecting stone and stepped on to the wall. The lamp on the table didn't throw much light up there, but it looked terribly dangerous to me.

"Hurry up and get it over," I called. The backs of my legs as well as my stomach were most uncomfortable.

She only had to take one step up the wall to reach the head.

"He's no beauty at close quarters," she said.

"What shall I say to him, Cassandra ?"

"Pat him on the head," I suggested.

"It must be hundreds of years since anyone showed him any affection."

Rose patted him. I got the lamp and held it high, but it was still

shadowy up there. She looked extraordinary, almost as if she were

flying up the wall or had been painted on it. I called out:

Heavenly devil or devilish saint, Grant our vish, hear our plaint.

Godsend Castle a godsend craves-and then I got stuck.

"If he's a devil, it can only be a devil send said Thomas. Just then a car on the Godsend road hooted loudly and he added:

"There's Old Nick come for you."

I saw Rose start.

"Get me down!" she cried in a queer voice and flopped on to the rack.

For one awful second I feared the boys might not be expecting the

strain, but they were ready and lowered her carefully. As soon as her feet were near the ground she jumped off and sat down on the floor.

"The car horn startled me," she said rather shakily, "and I looked down and went giddy."