A Desirable Husband by Frances Vernon

something of the kind.’
    â€˜Did she? Well, she had no business to! Oh, I beg your pardon, I suppose I’m rather overwrought – this beastly Christmas shopping and it’s so crowded. ’
    They looked at each other for a moment. She noticed how unusually dark a brown his eyes were and that, though he was well-shaven, he must by nature have a thick black beard.
    â€˜I must say you don’t look quite as well as you did when I last saw you, Mrs Parnell.’ Mr Lowell was interested by the mixture of her parents’ features in Finola’s face. He was fond of Alice and Anatole.
    â€˜Oh dear,’ said Finola casually. ‘We are both very worried at the moment.’ She blushed, thinking that she must make the best of it, now she had begun. ‘I do wish I could tell my – my husband how much I hate Constance, my mother-in-law, I mean!’ She scowled, and he laughed. It had been quite a humorous scowl.
    â€˜Tell me,’ he said. ‘It’s easier to say these things to strangers, if you know they won’t gossip. Rather like going to confession.’
    â€˜Yes and one can’t confess to family, they think too much about it.’ There was silence for a while and they drank their tea, though it was too hot still to be drunk with comfort.
    â€˜From what I know of my mother,’ said Finola at last, ‘I would guess you might – might have heard about us – about the difficulty, in quite some detail. I don’t know how close you are with my parents?’ Her voice was very polite.
    Mr Lowell replied boldly: ‘All Alice said was that Mrs Parnell refused to leave this house which belongs to you and your husband. I don’t think she’s told many people.’
    â€˜I hope not! Oh dear, I don’t think she’ll – Constance will – ever go of her own accord, at least not without half the stuff in the house, and – and we can’t live with her, you see, which I’m sure is what everyone expects us to do, and Gerard knows that quite well, especially down in Dorset where she’s awfully popular. We just don’t get on.’
    â€˜I do see.’
    â€˜And I can’t really talk about it even with Darcy. I haven’t seen Darcy for ages. You see Gerard – my husband – practically forbade me ever to mention it, or ask questions or anything. I once – I once found a letter from her in his study. He didn’t show it to me, I suppose he wanted to – protect me, in some silly way. Anyway, it was full of the most horrible abuse, nasty things about me, too. She said he’d always been a disappointment to her, oh, I don’t know what else.’ Finola was talking in a low voice, and she was not properly aware of Mr Lowell. He did not mind that she was so absorbed in herself, and not talking politely, or flirting with him.
    â€˜I’m surprised he did not confide in you.’
    â€˜Gerard’s funny. I know he wants to make things easier for me but for heavens’ sake it is my business, isn’t it!’
    â€˜I quite agree it’s your business. Tell me, Mrs Parnell, is it very important to you to make this move down to Dorset?’
    She looked at him then. ‘Yes, terribly important. Oh, I didn’t know how important.’
    â€˜Why?’ He poured more tea.
    â€˜I want a change, something new, it’s – it’s as though Gerard and I have never been properly grown up. We’ve never had a real place in the world, we’ve just drifted! And I keep hoping … you see, we’re both a disappointment to our parents.’
    â€˜What nonsense,’ he said, suddenly smiling. ‘Your parents adore you.’
    Finola was in too much of a hurry to resent his ‘nonsense’, which she suspected was true. ‘Yes, I know, but all the same of course I’m a disappointment, not being musical or artistic, or even clever. And I’m