Shooting Livien

HORN HONKS

"My darling sister, it isn't going to be at all what we expected.

"The house is old and quaint and altogether delightful -

"red brick.

"The hall itself is practically a room.

"From there you go right or left into dining room or drawing room.

"Straight ahead there are the stairs going up to the first floor -

"three bedrooms there, and three attics above.

"There's a very big wych-elm in the field behind the house.

"I quite love that tree already...

"..and, of course, more ordinary trees,

"flowerbeds, bluebells, forget-me-nots,

"peonies, irises and azaleas...

"..and a wisteria and clematis which grows all around the house."

"And now for the family themselves..."

CLACKING OUTSIDE

"This morning I was awakened by a clicketing sound,

"coming from the garden..."

Oh, blast!

"It was Charles, the older son, practising his croquet on the lawn.

"I must stress the word 'practising'.

"A bit later I heard more clacketing.

"At first I thought they were having a game...

"..but no, it was Mr Wilcox, practising HIS croquet.

"Mr Wilcox prefers three hoops, Charles, one.

"After a bit comes Miss Evie Wilcox.

"She does exercises on a callisthenics machine

"that is hanging from a pergola.

"At last comes Mrs Wilcox,

"who is a creature of a very different sort...

"..because, for all their croquet and callisthenics,

"Mrs Wilcox seems, of all of them,

"to belong most completely to Howards End -

"and it to her.

"Paul, younger son, arrives this morning."

"Much love..."

"Modified love to Tibby..."

"..and love to Aunt Juley.

"So good of her to come and keep you company..."

"..but what a bore for you. Burn this."

"Will write again Thursday. Helen."

But what sort of people are these Wilcoxes, Margaret?

I don't understand.

- I don't know any more than you do. We met them in Germany. - Oh.

We had an awful expedition from Heidelberg to Speyer,

to see the old cathedral there.

We met the Wilcoxes in the public gardens.

They hadn't any German, and we took some drives together.

Then they invited us to visit them when we came home.

Then Tibby got hay fever and Helen went on alone.

That's really all I can tell you.

Oh, you girls have always been so independent.

Isn't that generally reckoned to be a good thing, Aunt Juley?

I'm sure I don't know -

but I have always thought that the care of your sister and brother

too great a burden to place upon a young woman of your tender years.

Your youth has practically been thrown away

on your precious independence.

Practically!

Yes, Margaret, it has!

Who is to say what the result might have proved by now,

had your father left you in my care,

which I know your dear mother would have wished, and as I...

Oh, dear Aunt Juley, let's not go over that again.

Poor Mother left it up to Papa to decide, Papa left it up to me,

and I don't think I have done so badly after all -

and I've always valued your advice.

Yes, but you never take it.

Oh, I'm not saying you've done badly by Helen and Tibby, dear.

- Just for yourself. - Aunt Juley!

Excuse me, Miss, but Master Tibby's asking for you again.

Thank you, Nancy.

Annie, I think you can clear away the breakfast things now.

Yes, Miss.

"Dearest Meg, I do wish you were here.

"The Wilcoxes continue to fascinate."

Ah - Miss Schlegel. This is my brother Paul.

Paul, Miss Schlegel is stopping with us for the week.

- How do you do? - How do you do?

"Paul, younger brother, is quite the handsomest of the lot,

"but not a bit conceited,

"nor over-serious, like Charles - older brother.

"Mr Wilcox runs the Imperial and West African Rubber Company,

"and says the most horrid things so nicely.

"When I said I believed in equality between the sexes

"he gave me such a setting down as I have never had.

"Like all really strong people, he did it without hurting me."

My dear Miss Schlegel, there is no equality among men -

how can there be equality between men and women?

What civilisation has ever existed

on terms of perfect equality among its constituents?

What household, for that matter?

"Only Paul tried to come to my rescue,

"but he was quite overmatched."

But then oughtn't your anti-Suffragists

object to being ruled by a woman for 63 years?

- Bosh. - 64. - No, it was 63. - But why is it bosh?

- Because... - All right, then, 63. - And it's no good saying "bosh"

- when someone disagrees with you. - You can if it is bosh.

It's bosh because the exception proves the rule -

and you will search in vain

for as violent an enemy of your Suffragists as the late Queen.

But, well, wasn't that hypocrisy in her?

Not at all.

- Bosh. - THEY LAUGH

There was no hypocrisy in it.

It showed her perfect disinterest in the controversy.

"In five minutes he took up everything

"we were raised to believe in and ripped it entirely to shreds.

"It was lovely." Oh, dear.

One sound man of business does more good to the world

than a dozen of your social reformers.

Oh!

"But I have saved the best part for last."

Well, I dread to hear it!

I do suppose the arguments against women's suffrage

are frightfully strong, Mrs Wilcox?

Are they?

I never follow any arguments.

I am only too thankful not to have the vote myself.

- Would you pour the coffee, please? - Yes, Miss. - Thank you.

"And suddenly the discussion was over.

"I was never so much surprised in my life!

"So you see, Meg, I've got everything upso-down again.

"It is not Mr Wilcox who rules at Howards End, but his wife.

"She slams no doors, states no facts, and does no callisthenics.

"They worship and obey her.

"It makes one worship them in turn."

But why our Helen should be so charmed

to find her deepest convictions so easily disaggregated,

I simply cannot imagine.

I think she's infatuated with the lot of them.

THEY LAUGH

Off we go! Onwards!

They sound to me quite the wrong sort of people for Helen.

Not our sort of people at all.

They are rather a breath of fresh air.

Sometimes I feel that we are swathed in cant,

and it is good for us to be stripped of it.

Stripped of what, dear?

Cant. Argot. Jargon, hypocrisy, sanctimoniousness.

Sometimes I long for someone dominating

to tell me that my ideas are sheltered and academic,

that equality is...

- Bosh. - Socialism?

Dangerous bosh.

Art and literature...

Oh, Margaret...!

Bosh!

This is really too much.

Except of course when conducive to strengthening the character.

Of course.

You have a strong character, Miss Schlegel...

Yes, it has been strengthened by art and literature.

Aha! You prove my point.

You are really the most peculiar girl.

"Yes, my darling Meg,

"one by one my Schlegel fetiches have been overthrown.

"The Wilcox men see everything with such freshness

"and clarity that nothing seems to muddle them."

The ruin dates from the eleventh century.

We can stop here for half an hour

and still be in time for some cricket.

But surely, Margaret, dear,

you can find in yourself no answering feeling

for that kind of push?

No, but I do sometimes think that the real world

has been marching past us for some time now,

and there's nothing wrong with Helen joining in the parade

for a week or two -

if only to ensure that we're not wholly and entirely left behind.

Well, I, for one, have never marched in a parade,

and I have no wish to do so now.

You and Helen may do as you choose, of course.

Oh, don't let's worry about Helen!

Her head may be easily turned,

but it does go on turning, if you see what I mean.

That's why it's got so much more sense in it than most people's.

At least...sometimes it does.

Miss Schlegel...

I...

- Helen... - Yes, do.

"Dearest, dearest Meg. I do not know what you will say.

"Paul, younger son, and I are in love."

Oh, dear.

But this is far too sudden, surely.

Has the young man made an offer?

She doesn't say.

Our Helen is not a girl to be trifled with -

and if he has not made an offer...

- She doesn't say, Aunt Juley. - What's to be done?

I don't think anything needs doing but I must go down to see her.

Margaret, dear. Quite frankly - you won't be offended?

I feel you are not up to this business.

This requires an older person.

You Schlegels, you are so impetuous.

You see far too many people here. Unshaven musicians. Actresses, even.

German cousins...

- Oh, Aunt Juley! - Acquaintances picked up at foreign hotels. - Really...

Disaster was bound to come.