The Enchanted April, Chapter 15

Rejoin the ladies in this latest chapter of Elizabeth von Arnim's wonderful novel as Mellersh enters his second day at San Salvatore and Constanza presents an extravagant bill for food, much to Mrs Fisher's disgust.

Find all the chapters together in the playlist Book at Bedtime: The Enchanted April.

Transcript

Hello again it's mandy here welcome back to the enchanted april by elizabeth von arnim we're going to be listening to chapter 15 tonight so please go ahead make yourself really comfortable and i'll begin the strange effect of this incident was that when they met that evening at dinner both mrs fisher and lady caroline had a singular feeling of secret understanding with mr wilkins he couldn't be to them as other men he couldn't be to them as he would have been if they had met him in his clothes there was a sense of broken ice they felt at once intimate and indulgent almost they felt to him as nurses do as those feel who have assisted either patients or young children at their baths they were acquainted with mr wilkins's legs what mrs fisher said to him that morning in her first shock will never be known but what mr wilkins said to her in reply when reminded by what she was saying of his condition was so handsome in its apology so proper in its confusion that she had ended up by being quite sorry for him and completely placated after all it was an accident and nobody could help accidents and when she saw him next at dinner dressed polished spotless as to linen and sleek as to hair she felt this singular sensation of a secret understanding with him and added to it of a kind of almost personal pride in his appearance now that he was dressed which presently extended in some subtle way to an almost personal pride in everything he said there was no doubt whatever in mrs fisher's mind that a man was infinitely preferable as a companion to a woman mr wilkins presence and conversation at once raised the standard of the dinner table from that of a bear garden yes a bear garden to that of a civilized social gathering he talked as men talk about interesting subjects and though most courteous to lady caroline showed no traces of dissolving into simpers and idiocy whenever he addressed her he was indeed precisely as courteous to mrs fisher herself and when for the first time at that table politics were introduced he listened to her with the proper seriousness on her exhibiting a desire to speak and treated her opinions with the attention they deserved he appeared to think much as she did about lloyd george and in regards to literature he was equally sound in fact there was real conversation and he liked nuts how he could have married mrs wilkins was a mystery lottie for her part looked on with round eyes she had expect melash to take at least two days before he got to this stage but the san salvatore spell had worked instantly it was not only that he was pleasant at dinner but she had always seen him pleasant at dinners with other people but he had been pleasant all day privately so pleasant that he had complimented her on her looks while she was brushing out her hair and kissed her kissed her and it was neither good nor good night well this being so she would put off telling him the truth about her nest egg and about rose not being his hostess after all till next day pity to spoil things she'd be going to blurt it out as soon as he'd had a rest but it did seem a pity to disturb such a very beautiful frame of mind as that of melash on this first day let him too get more firmly fixed in heaven once fixed he wouldn't mind anything her face sparkled with delight at the instantaneous effect of san salvatore even the catastrophe of the bath of which she had been told had not shaken him of course all that he had needed was a holiday what a brute she had been to him when he wanted to take her himself to italy but this arrangement as it happened was ever so much better though not through any marriage of hers she talked and laughed gaily not a shred of fear of him left in her and even when she said struck by his spotlessness that he looked so clean that one could eat one's dinner off him and scrap laughed melosh laughed too he would have minded that at home supposing that at home she'd have the spirit to say it it was a successful evening scrap whenever she looked at mr wilkins saw him in his towel dripping water and felt indulgent mrs fisher was delighted with him rose was a dignified hostess in mr wilkins's eyes quiet and dignified and he admired the way she waved her right to preside at the head of the table as a graceful compliment of course to mrs fisher's age this is how buff not was opined mr wilkins naturally retiring she was the most retiring of the three ladies he had met her before dinner alone for a moment in the drawing room and had expressed in appropriate language his sense of her kindness in wishing him to join her party and she had been retiring then was she shy probably she had blushed and murmured as if in deprecation and then the others had come in at dinner she talked least he would of course become better acquainted with her during the next few days and it would be a pleasure he was sure meanwhile lady caroline was all and more than all mr wilkins had imagined and had received his speeches worked in skillfully between the courses graciously mrs fisher was the exact old lady he'd been hoping to come across all his professional life and lottie had not only immensely improved but was obviously a mere mr wilkins knew what was necessary in french with lady caroline he had been much tormented during the day by the thought of how he had stood conversing with lady caroline forgetful of his not being dressed and had at last written her a note most deeply apologizing and beseeching her to overlook his amazing his incomprehensible obliviousness to which she had replied in pencil on the back of the envelope don't worry and he had obeyed her commands the result was he was now in great contentment before going to sleep that night he pinched his wife's ear she was amazed these endearments what is more the morning brought no relapse in mr wilkins and he kept up to his high level throughout the day in spite of it being the first day of the second week and therefore payday it being payday precipitated lottie's confession which she had when it came to the point been inclined to put off a little longer she was not afraid she dared anything but malice was in such an admirable humor why risk clouding it just yet when however soon after breakfast costanza appeared with a pile of very dirty little bits of paper covered with sums in pencil and having knocked at mrs fisher's door and been sent away and at lady caroline's door and been sent away and at rose's door and had no answer because rose had gone out she waylaid lottie who was showing relish over the house and pointed to the bits of paper and talked very rapidly and loud and shrugged her shoulders a great deal and kept on pointing at the bits of paper lottie remembered that a week had passed without anybody paying anything to anyone and that the moment had come to settle up does this good lady want something inquired mr wilkins mellifluously money said lottie money it's the housekeeping bills well you have nothing to do with those said mr wilkins serenely oh yes i have and the confession was precipitated it was wonderful how malice took it one would have imagined that his sole idea about the nest egg had always been that it should be lavished on just this he did not as he would have done at home cross-examine her he accepted everything as it came pouring out about her fibs and all and when she had finished and said you have every right to be angry i think but i hope you won't be and will forgive me instead he merely asked what can be more beneficial than such a holiday whereupon she put her arm through his and held it tight and said oh malice you really are too sweet her face red with pride in him that he should so quickly assimilate the atmosphere that he should at once become nothing but kindness showed surely what a real affinity he had with good and beautiful things he belonged quite naturally in this place of heavenly calm he was extraordinary how she had misjudged him by nature a child of light fancy not minding the dreadful fibs she had gone in for before leaving home fancy passing even those over without comment wonderful yet not wonderful for wasn't he in heaven too in heaven nobody minded any of those done with things one didn't even trouble to forgive and forget one was much too happy she pressed his arm tight in her gratitude and appreciation and though he didn't withdraw his neither did he respond to her pressure mr wilkins was of a cool habit and rarely had any real wish to press meanwhile costanza perceiving she had lost the wilkins's ear had gone back to mrs fisher who at least understood italian besides being clearly in the servant's eyes the one of the party marked down to pay the bills and to her while mrs fisher put the final touches to her toilette but she was preparing by means of putting on a hat and veil and feather boa and gloves to go for her first stroll in the lower garden positively her first since her arrival she explained that unless she was given money to pay the last week's bills the shops of castagnetto would refuse credit for the current week's food not even credit would they give affirmed costanza who had been spending a great deal and was anxious to pay all their relations what was owed them and also to find out how her mistresses took it for that day's meals soon it would be the hour of collazione and how could there be collazione without meat without fish without eggs without mrs fisher took the bills out of her hand and looked at the total and she was so much astonished by its size so much horrified by the extravagance to which it testified that she sat down at her writing table to go into the thing thoroughly costanza had a very bad half hour she had not supposed it was in the english to be so mercenary and then la vecchia as she was called in the kitchen knew so much italian and with a doggedness that filled costanza with shame on her behalf for such conduct was the last one expected from the noble english she went through item after item requiring and persisting till she got them explanations there were no explanations except that costanza had had one glorious week of doing exactly as she chose of splendid unbridled license costanza having no explanations wept it was miserable to think she would have to cook from now on under watchfulness under suspicion and what would her relations say when they found the orders they received were whittled down they would say she had no influence they would despise her costanza wept but mrs fisher was unmoved in slow and splendid italian with the role of the cantos of dante's inferno she informed her that she would pay no bills till the following week and that meanwhile the food was to be precisely as good as ever and at a quarter of the cost costanza threw up her hands next week proceeded mrs fisher unmoved if she found this had been so she would pay the whole otherwise she paused for what she would do otherwise she didn't know herself but she paused and looked impenetrable majestic and menacing and costanza was cowed then mrs fisher having dismissed her with a gesture went in search of lady caroline she had been under the impression that lady caroline ordered the meals and therefore was responsible for the prices but now it appeared that the cook had been left to do exactly as she pleased ever since they got there which of course was simply disgraceful scrap was not in her bedroom but the room on mrs fisher's opening the door but she suspected her of being in it and only pretending not to hear the knock was still flower-like from her presence sent snip mrs fisher shutting it again and she wished carlyle could have had five minutes straight talk with this young woman and yet perhaps even he she went downstairs to go into the garden in search of her and in the hall encountered mr wilkins he had his hat on and was lighting a cigar indulgent as mrs fisher felt towards mr wilkins and peculiarly and even mystically related after the previous morning's encounter yet she could not like a cigar in the house out of doors she endured it but it was not necessary when out of doors was such a big place to indulge the habit indoors even mr fisher who had been she should say a man originally tenacious of habits had quite soon after marriage got out of this one however mr wilkins snatching off his hat on seeing her instantly threw the cigar away he threw it into the water a great jar of aran lilies presumably contained and mrs fisher aware of the value men attached to their newly lit cigars could not but be impressed by this immediate and magnificent amand honorable but the cigar did not reach the water it got caught in the lilies and smoked on by itself among them a strange and depraved looking object where are you going to my pretty began mr wilkins advancing towards mrs fisher but he broke off just in time was it morning spirits impelling him to address mrs fisher in the terms of a nursery rhyme he wasn't even aware that he knew the thing most strange what could have put it at such a moment into his self-possessed head he felt great respect for mrs fisher and would not for the world have insulted her by addressing her as a maid pretty or otherwise he wished to stand well with her she was a woman of parts and also he suspected of property at breakfast they had been most pleasant together and he had been struck by her apparent intimacy with well-known persons victorians of course but it was restful to talk about them after the strain of his brother-in-law's georgian parties on Hampstead he he and she were getting on famously he felt she already showed all the symptoms of presently wishing to become a client not for the world would he offend her he turned a little cold at the narrowness of his escape she had not however noticed you were going out he said very politely all readiness should she confirm his assumption to accompany her i want to find lady caroline said mrs fisher going towards the glass door leading into the top garden an agreeable quest remarked mr wilkins may i assist in the search allow me he added opening the door for her she usually sits over in that corner behind the bushes said mrs fisher and i don't know about it being an agreeable quest she has been letting the bills run up in the most terrible fashion and needs a good scolding lady caroline said mr wilkins unable to follow such an attitude what has lady caroline if i may inquire to do with the bills here the housekeeping was left to her and as we all share alike it ought to have been a matter of honor with her but lady caroline housekeeping for the party here a party which includes my wife my dear lady you render me speechless do you not know she is the daughter of the droid which is oh is that who she is said mrs fisher scrunching heavily over the pebbles towards the hidden corner well that accounts for it the muddle that man droid which made in his department in the war was a national scandal it amounted to misappropriation of the public funds but it is impossible i assure you to expect the daughter of the droid which is began mr wilkins earnestly the droid which is interrupted mrs fisher are neither here nor there duties undertaken should be performed i don't intend my money to be squandered for the sake of any droid which is a headstrong old lady perhaps not so easy to deal with as he had hoped but how wealthy only the consciousness of great wealth would make her snap her fingers in this manner at the droid which is lottie on being questioned had been vague about her circumstances and had described her house as a mausoleum with goldfish swimming about in it but now he was sure she was more than very well off still he wished he had not joined her at this moment but he had no sort of desire to be present at such a spectacle as the scolding of lady caroline duster again however he was reckoning without scrap whatever she felt when she looked up and beheld mr wilkins discovering her corner on the very first morning nothing but angelicness appeared on her face she took her feet off the parapet on mrs fisher's sitting down on it and listening gravely to her opening remarks as to her not having any money to fling about in reckless and uncontrolled household expenditure interrupted her flow by pulling one of the cushions from behind her head and offering it to her sit on this said scrap holding it out you will be more comfortable mr wilkins left to relieve her of it oh thanks said mrs fisher interrupted it was difficult to get into the swing again mr wilkins inserted the cushion solicitously between the slightly raised mrs fisher and the stone of the parapet and again she had to say thanks it was interrupted besides lady caroline said nothing in her own defense she only looked at her and listened with the face of an attentive angel it seemed to mr wilkins that it must be difficult to scold a duster who looked like that and who so exquisitely said nothing mrs fisher he was glad to see gradually found it difficult herself for her severity slackened and she ended by saying lamely you ought to have told me you were not doing it i didn't know you thought i was said the lovely voice i would now like to know said mrs fisher what you propose to do for the rest of the time here nothing said scrap smiling nothing do you mean to say if i may be allowed ladies impose mr wilkins in his suavest professional manner to make a suggestion they both looked at him and remembering the first time they saw him felt indulgent i would advise you not to spoil a delightful holiday with worries over housekeeping exactly said mrs fisher it's what i intend to avoid most sensible said mr wilkins why not then he continued allow the cook an excellent cook by the way so much per head per dm mr wilkins knew what was necessary in latin and tell her that for this sum she must cater for you and not only cater but cater as well as ever one could easily reckon it out the charges of a moderate hotel for instance would do as a basis halved or perhaps even quartered and this week that has just passed asked mrs fisher the terrible bills of this first week what about them they shall be my present to san salvatore said scrap who didn't like the idea of lottie's nest egg being reduced so much beyond what she was prepared for there was a silence the ground was cut from under mrs fisher's feet of course if you choose to throw your money about she said at last disapproving but immensely relieved while mr wilkins was wrapped in the contemplation of the precious qualities of blue blood this readiness for instance not to trouble about money this free-handedness it was not only what one admired in others admired in others perhaps more than anything else but it was extraordinarily useful when met with it should be encouraged by warmth of reception mrs fisher was not warm she accepted but she accepted grudgingly presents were presents and one did not look them in this manner in the mouth he felt and if lady caroline found her pleasure in presenting his wife and mrs fisher with their entire food for a week it was their part to accept gracefully one should not discourage gifts on behalf of his wife then mr wilkins expressed what she would wish to express and remarking to lady caroline with a touch of lightness for so should gifts be accepted in order to avoid embarrassing the donor that she had in that case been his wife's hostess since her arrival he turned almost gaily to mrs fisher and pointed out that she and his wife must now jointly write lady caroline the customary letter of thanks for hospitality a collins said mr wilkins who knew what was necessary in literature i prefer the name collins for such a letter to either that of board and lodging or bread and let us call it a collins scrap smiled and held out her cigarette case mrs fisher could not help being modified a way out of waste was going to be found thanks to mr wilkins and she hated waste quite as much as having to pay for it also a way was found out of housekeeping for a moment she had thought that if everybody tried to force her into housekeeping on her brief holiday by their own indifference lady caroline or inability to speak latin or inability to speak italian the other two she would have to send for kate lumley after all kate could do it kate and she had learned italian together kate would only be allowed to come on condition that she did do it but this was much better this way of mr wilkins's really a most superior man there was nothing like an intelligent not too young man for profitable and pleasurable companionship and when she got up the business for which she had come being settled and said she now intended to take a little stroll before lunch mr wilkins did not stay with lady caroline as most of the men she had known would she was afraid or wanted to he asked to be permitted to go and stroll with her so that he evidently definitely preferred conversation to faces a sensible companionable man a clever well-read man a man of the world a man she was very glad indeed she had not written to kate the other day what did she want with kate she had found a better companion but mr wilkins didn't go with mrs fisher because of her conversation but because when she got up and he got up because she got up intending merely to bow her out of the recess lady caroline had put her feet up on the parapet again and arranging her head sideways on the cushions had shut her eyes the daughter of the joint which is desired to go to sleep it was not for him by remaining to prevent her to be continued

Reviews

Great chapter! Love your narrating Mandy.
Such a pro. Such a beautiful voice. My third time around and still… enchanting

Though intriguing, still able to relax me and help
me sleep! Thank you Mandy💖🌟

I've been listening to this again to catch all the parts I missed when I fell asleep at the end of each chapter. What a treasure this book is, both for falling asleep and for enjoying while I'm awake. Thank you, Mandy!

Such a GREAT way to close my day. Many thanks Mandy 😀😀😀

Amazing such a story can be suspenseful, but with the addition of a man in the group, the tension has grown considerably. Thanks for the reading 🙏🏻📖❤️😊

So wonderful—surprised by Melish’s blending, but worried about that cigar!😜 thank you as always🙏🏽

Thank you Mandy for another great chapter, beautifully read as usual. Looking forward to the next one. 💜x

Always excited when a new chapter is posted! And what a delightful turn of events! There was a period in the recording in the middle when the sound quality changed and it was harder to understand.