“Well I won’t presume to shut it; but revel _up_. Here you are.
Breakfast’s nearly ready. Hold the ends while I get out and shut the
door.”
Harry _too_; and she used to be so fond of open windows. But it was not
a snub. She would say to Gerald she’s got her window bang open, isn’t
she an old _Cure_? She got out singing into the fresh golden air leaving
the window wide. The London temptation to shirk her swift shampoo and
huddle on a garment did not come. The sense of summer was so strong in
the bright air that she felt sure, if only she could have always bright
screened light in her room, summer warmth and summer happiness would
last the whole year round.
Gerald was pouring out coffee. In the kitchen the voices of Harriett and
Mrs. Thimm were railing cheerfully together. Harriett came in with a
rush, slamming the door. “Is it too warm for you in here Miss
Henderson?” she asked as she drove Gerald to his own end of the table.
“It’s glorious” said Miriam subsiding into indefinite anticipation. The
room was very warm with sunlight and a blazing fire. But there was no
pressure anywhere. It was their youth and the way being with them made
things go backwards as far as one could see and confidently forward from
any room they happened to be in. A meal with them always seemed as if it
might go on for ever. She glanced affectionately from one to the other,
longing to convey to them in some form of words the thing they did not
seem to know, the effect they made, together, through having been
together from such early beginnings, how it gave and must always give a
_confidence_ to the very expression of their hair, making them always
about to start life together. It came from Harriett, and was reflected
by Gerald, a light that played about him, decking him in his most
unconscious, busy, man’s moments with the credit of having found
Harriett. They seemed more suitably arranged, confronted here together
in this bright eventful house, meeting adventures together, mutually
efficient towards a common end, than with Gerald in business and Harry
silken and leisurely in a suburban house ......
“We’ll be more glorious in a minute” said Gerald sweeping actively
about. “I’ll just move that old fern.”
“Oh of _course_” mocked Harriett, “_look_ at the importance ...”
Whistling softly Gerald placed a small square box on the table amongst
the breakfast things.
“_Oh_ dear me” moaned Harriett from behind the coffee pot, smirking
coyly backwards over her shoulder, “hoh, _ar’n’t_ we grand.” “It’s the
new _toy_” she rapped avertedly towards Miriam, in a despairing whisper.
Gerald interrupted his whistling to fix on to the box a sort of trumpet,
a thing that looked like a wide-open green nasturtium.
“Is it a musical box?” asked Miriam.