Well, then he became nervous and sentimental. He wouldn't compromise Phyllida for the world; he'd every intention of speaking to Brackenbury when the time came, but as long as he was living on his pay and the war went on... You can imagine it. He was quite sincere. I told you I liked him; the only thing was that I didn't think him quite suitable for Phyllida. Upbringing, milieu... He was no fool; I felt he'd see it for himself before he'd been at the Hall half an hour...
To cut a long story short, I made him promise to hold no more communication with the child until he'd seen Brackenbury; and I told my brother to invite him there for a weekend. I didn't see very much of what happened, as I left the young people to themselves; but Will entirely bore out the vague, intangible feeling... Poor Colonel Butler wasn't at home; he made my boy's life a burden for days beforehand, asking what clothes he should take, and, when they were there, it was "I've been away so much that I don't know what the tariff is since the war: if I give ten shillings to the man who looks after me, how much ought I to give the butler?" ... Things I should have thought a man knew without asking. Will was really rather naughty about it...
Brackenbury didn't see anything amiss. One's standard changes when one has done that sort of thing oneself. As I always said, "If you don't absorb her, she'll absorb you." And so it's proved. Ruth, of course, saw only the romance of it all. Goodness me, unless we're all twins, some one has to be the youngest colonel in the army... I don't know what people mean nowadays, when they talk about "romance." .. Brackenbury and the whole family made the absurdest fuss—well, I won't say that, because I liked young Butler; they made a great fuss. Even my nephew Culroyd, who's in the Coldstream, was quite affable; "eating out of his hand" was Will's phrase. So descriptive, I thought; Will has an extraordinary knack of hitting people off...
None of them seemed to think of the money side at all. Brackenbury was always improvident as a boy; but, until you've felt the pinch as Will and I have done, you don't learn anything about values. Four thousand a year sounds very pleasant, but if it's now only equal to two... And Phyllida has always lived up to anything she's had. "I want it, therefore I must have it" has been her rule. Clothes, trinkets, little treats... She has four horses, eating their heads off, while my poor Will says he stands hat in hand before any one who'll mount him. And her own little car... I know a brick wall when I see one; it was no use asking Phyllida whether she thought she could afford a husband as well as everything else. And a family; one has to look ahead... Colonel Butler wouldn't be earning anything for years.
He told me so. I liked him more and more, because he was so simple and straightforward. After luncheon on the Saturday, we had a long talk together. I think I said I'd shew him the house. As you know, I yield to no one in my love for the dear old Hall, but Colonel Butler was like a child. You'd have said he'd never been inside a big house before; I don't believe he ever had... I took him everywhere, even Phyllida's rooms; it was well for him to see, I felt...
I remember he thanked me for having him invited to the Hall; from his tone you'd have said I was playing fairy god-mother, and he credited me with the very friendly reception that every one had given him. If the truth must be known—I wasn't taking sides; you must understand that!—I wanted them to see and I wanted him to see... As Will once said, "Half the world doesn't know how the other half lives." I felt that, when Colonel Butler stood there, everything sinking in. A man, I suppose, always is rather bewildered at the number of things a girl requires—frocks, gloves, hats, shoes, stockings... You mustn't think that I shewed him Phyllida's wardrobe! Goodness me, no! But her maid was in the room, getting things ready for the child's return from hunting. It was almost pathetic; one could fancy the poor young man counting on his fingers and saying: "She must have as good a room as this, she'll want to keep on her present maid, I don't suppose she can even prepare a bath for herself or fasten her dress or brush her hair..." But it's better for that kind of thing to sink in at the beginning... Wherever I took him, he seemed to be saying: "You can't do this sort of thing without so many servants, so much a year." .. Will told me that the first night at dinner... But I'm afraid Will's naughty sometimes...
He thanked me—Colonel Butler did—in a way that suggested I hadn't shewn him only the house.
"But I've enjoyed it," I said. "I'm only sorry you weren't able to go out with the rest."
He told me he didn't hunt, he'd never had any opportunity. There was quite a list of things he didn't do, but he was very simple and straightforward about them. Don't you dislike that aggressive spirit which compels people to tell you how many they slept in one room and the night-schools they attended and so forth and so on? It makes me quite hot. I believe that's why they do it... There was nothing of that about Colonel Butler, though the army had made him a little borné. When I took him to see the stables, he shewed a certain sentimental interest in Phyllida's horses; but his only comment was: "I wish we were given beasts like that in the army." And it was the army in everything that he ate or read. Phyllida, as you know, has travelled more than most girls of her age; she wouldn't like to drop that altogether on marrying; but, if you said "Egypt" to Colonel Butler, it was simply a place where he'd been invalided the first time he was wounded at Gallipoli. The war seems to make some men curiously material... You understand I'm not criticizing him as a soldier; I'm sure he did excellent and useful work, but the war is only an episode in our lives...
At tea he was so silent that I felt it was all sinking in very deep. At the end he said: