Alfred and Emily by Doris Lessing Page A

making plans thinking of me, and of my old friend Daisy, and perhaps one or two others, but here I am with you – and we have only recently got to know each other, and now there’s Fiona and —’
    â€˜But, Aunt Emily, you can’t possibly imagine you can do allyou plan with just you and one or two others. For one thing, you’ll need a secretary.’
    â€˜I’ll think about it all,’ said Emily.
    â€˜But not for too long,’ said Cedric.
    At once a letter arrived from Daisy, saying that two houses were going for a song not far from the one she and Emily had shared: Rupert had bought them for this new venture. At once Cedric arrived, and again, Emily having opened her house, the two sat at the great table in the dining-room.
    â€˜And now, Aunt Emily!’
    â€˜Daisy doesn’t want to be bothered with business things: she’s getting married. You must make the people involved, Daisy, her Rupert, me, you…’
    â€˜And Fiona, I hope?’
    â€˜Very well.’
    â€˜You won’t be sorry. She’s such a good girl. I simply cannot believe my luck, getting her.’
    And so it was, and Emily found herself very busy.
    And very alone. Daisy was in the throes of ‘flowers and fuss’. So was Fiona.
    Emily, alone in her big house, stared hard into her mirror and told herself that she was sad not because she wasn’t getting married but because she believed she had never been married, not really. She compared herself and William with Daisy and Rupert – ‘But they are really fond of each other,’ whispered Emily, thinking that this was a stern face looking back at her. She contrasted it with Daisy’s, all smiles these days, and when she thought of the young couple, Cedric andFiona, tears definitely threatened. Just imagine her William joking and teasing, like Cedric – not to be thought of! Those two couples, one middle-aged, one so young, were both inside a kind of happiness Emily had never known. And so, Emily admonished her face, bleak enough, in the reflected light from the glass, there was something wrong with her. There must be. Cedric said that Fiona was ‘such fun’. Daisy wrote that ‘I am so happy, Emily, and never expected to be.’
    But luckily there was plenty of work to do.
    Cedric dropped in with documents, plans, ideas. ‘It’s lucky, Aunt Emily, that nothing much is expected of a bridegroom. Poor Fiona.’
    â€˜Cedric, I am getting letters by every post. Do we really want to staff our schools with society girls?’
    â€˜I hope you are not calling Fiona a society girl, Aunt Emily.’
    â€˜Look, Cedric.’ She pushed towards him a heap of the letters.
    â€˜I’ll take these. I’m bound to know most of them. I’ll make sure you choose right.’
    And, again, ‘Cedric, surely we don’t need so many bishops.’
    â€˜You can never have too many bishops. We’ll just choose the fanciest for our letterhead.’
    He asked her to write down, in a paragraph, how she visualized their project in five years’ time – and ten years’ time. He said, ‘William left you a tidy sum, Aunt Emily, but not enough to pay for all you are planning. No, I’ll draft you a nice little charity. We must have bishops for that. Archbishops would be better. And perhaps a royal or two. I tell you who we musthave to run all that. Fiona’s cousin, Madge. She’s really a whiz at all things charitable.’
    How very odd, Emily thought. It’s a question of schools and books for the poor, and suddenly I spend all my time with Lady this and the Honourable that, not to mention tea with bishops.
    Daisy got herself wed, Fiona did too, and in no time the girl was Emily’s right hand, always there, responsible, clever, everything Emily could have wished.
    Then, the young couple’s new house having fallen through, Emily let Cedric and Fiona her house,