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Chapter 24
ONCE MR. PARKER had reached his impetuous decision to hold an Assembly in Sanditon, his impatience to carry it out swept away his own former objections; and nobody else`s were even consulted. By the time he sat down to dinner that evening he had already fixed on Thursday, August the 27th, as a definite date; and, full of energy and infectious enthusiasm, had mentally engaged the musicians, ordered the candles, hired extra chairs and calculated the probable cost of the supper. To his wife`s protests that she had no time to arrange an Assembly, that Sanditon was too thin of company and that a week was not long enough to complete all the necessary planning, he paid no attention. "Now you are talking nonsense, my dear. If one plans something a fortnight ahead, it takes a fortnight. If one only allows a week, then that is always sufficient too. These details of supper dishes and card tables -- what do they amount to? All speedily settled once you give your mind to it. And have you forgotten, my dear Mary, that Diana is with us at the present time? You have only to ask Diana; she will give all the help and advice you could need." Had Mrs. Parker been interested in organising the Assembly herself, she would have found it difficult to prevent her sister-in-law from giving far more help and advice than she cared to receive; but as she much preferred to run her own household efficiently and continue her gardening undisturbed, by the following morning she had accepted Diana`s obliging offer to take over entire responsibility for arranging the Assembly. lf she had any little vanity, boasted Miss Diana, it was in her belief that she knew how to organise large-scale entertainments of this kind and how to supervise people successfully. Everyone was always ready to work under her direction. Servants -- her own or other people`s -- were always devoted to her. Even such disappointing material as their Sally could be turned into a good servant under her management. And organising an Assembly was, of course, but an extension in magnitude of those precepts that rule the ordered management of a household. It required only a clear mind, the ability to issue simple concise orders and the selfless expenditure of a great deal of energy to make sure they were carried out. Mrs. Parker must not disturb herself trying to acquire such very necessary qualities within the next week when she, Miss Diana, already possessed them. She would be extremely happy to be of service to them all. And, consequently, Miss Diana was very soon most busily occupied striding between the Terrace and the Assembly rooms at the hotel, toiling up the hill to Trafalgar House to consult her brother over every minor point, and disorganising the Woodcocks and their staff in ordering windows to be cleaned, chandeliers to be washed and floors to be polished by servants she had already despatched elsewhere on unnecessary errands. With all this talk of dates and plans, Charlotte came to the reluctant decision she herself should be making plans for a return to Willingden. No date had so far been mentioned -- no limit had ever been set to her seaside holiday; but on the day fixed for the Assembly, she would already have been a full month in Sanditon, which seemed an appropriate time to raise the subject of departure with her kind hosts. The suggestion was met with all the concern and hospitality she had come to expect from them. But did she wish to leave them so soon? They had been hoping she would stay the whole summer. She could not be meaning to fix on so early a departure. Charlotte was warm in her gratitude but remained firm in her intentions. perhaps no precise date could be settled, but certain things must be thought of; she must write to her father and arrange a convenient day when the family coach could meet her at Hailsham. And though Mr. Parker protested she could be driven the whole way in his carriage whenever she liked -- any morning at all she "woke up feeling homesick" -- she smilingly insisted on giving her parents due notice and arranging her homecoming in advance. On one point only did she waver -- allowing herself to be persuaded this could all be discussed "after the Assembly." There was too much else to be thought of now, Mr. Parker claimed. Diana, for one, could not be distracted by such proposals. Diana was forever saying Miss Heywood was the greatest help in all her little arrangements. Oh no, Diana could never spare her. lt was true that for the past two days Charlotte had carried many urgent messages for Miss Diana and had been summoned by her so many times that the Parkers could be excused for believing she was greatly involved in all their sister`s bustling activities. But it was also true that she had spent most of those two days sitting in the drawing room of Number Four doing nothing whatsoever except wait for Miss Diana to return with fresh orders. She was very kindly received there by Miss Parker, with whom she had become something of a favourite since the excursion to Brinshore, where her calm good sense had recommended her to Miss Parker`s particular notice. And though they had very little in common beyond the episode of the bee sting, Miss Parker could never grow tired of discussing that. She now looked back on the incident with the utmost complacence, quite proud of the consequence it had given her. Of all the people and all the bees in Brinshore on that day, it was really most extraordinary she should have been singled out for so marked a distinction! Charlotte always listened very patiently to the repeated and detailed descriptions of the varying degrees of pain experienced in the process of receiving and recovering from a bee sting. Miss Parker would never forget those hours of agony on the sofa, the nervous spasms she had endured; and although she never neglected to mention Miss Heywood s very great kindness on the occasion, it was clear that her mind was chiefly preoccupied with a sense of her own heroism in the face of sudden crisis. From the window of Number Four, Charlotte occasionally caught sight of the customary morning party assembling on the Terrace and strolling along the shore line, but felt no resentment at being unable to join them. The Miss Beauforts no doubt often congratulated themselves on the success they were enjoying over their seaweed excursions. Arthur remained their only serious convert to the collecting mania, But for want of anything better to do, Reginald Catton and Henry Brudenall had at least become regular members of the party. Clara Brereton clearly regarded these organised meetings as excellent pretexts for escaping regularly from Sanditon House, Sir Edward was still promising the Miss Beauforts his verses and using them as an excuse for his daily encounters with Miss Brereton; and his sister always accompanied him, though Charlotte often wondered how she was able to justify her continued presence when she professed such open disdain for seaweed and merely sat on her comfortable rock taking no active part in the proceedings, Miss Denham was scarcely in a position to acknowledge her real motive to anyone, whether this was to make headway for herself with the visitors from the hotel or to keep a watchful eye on her brother`s conduct towards Miss Brereton. How the latter affair was progressing, Charlotte could make only distant surmises. From her vantage point at the window, she had once observed Sir Edward trying to detach Clara from the main group and liked to imagine the firm shake of the head he had been given on this occasion was worth more than the complacent smiles he was given at other times. There were other sources of speculation for Charlotte too as she sat listening to Miss Parker recount her impressions of Brinshore; and she often tried to imagine how very differently each member of the party would consider the day of that visit in retrospect. For Henry Brudenall, it was his cousin`s wedding day; for Arthur and the Miss Beauforts, their introduction to seaweed; for Clara Brereton a day of unhappy indecision, which had ended in Lady Denham`s invitation to the very cousin who might sensibly advise her; for Sir Edward, perhaps a day of frustration when Clara postponed the elopement he was now urging her to reconsider; for Sidney Parker it was certainly an occasion for displaying his powers of organisation, for duping everybody and playing practical jokes; for the Miss Parkers, this noteworthy advenrure of the bee-sting. And for herself? It had been an unforgettable day on which she was confronted by problems whose existence she had never recognised, and struggled with emotions she had not believed herself to possess. lt was calming to sit with Miss Parker, sorting out these memories of Brinshore; and Charlotte was never seriously disturbed, on arriving at Number Four following an urgent summons, to discover Miss Diana had walked off on even more urgent business, leaving instructions for her to but "wait a few minutes," which invariably stretched into half the morning. She was on her way there for the third successive day, escorted by Arthur who had conveyed Miss Diana`s latest message to Trafalgar House, when she caught sight of the pale features of Miss Lambe, peering wistfully from a half-open window of the corner house. A smile and a wave in passing would have been enough. But Charlotte, who had not seen Miss Lambe since their day in Brinshore, had overheard several careless remarks of the Miss Beauforts that "poor Adela was quite done up with so much travelling" and "her migraines are the most horrid thing, you know -- the slightest exertion seems to bring one on. Though she would have hesitated to call and put Mrs. Griffiths to the inconvenience of entertaining her, she was determined to make proper enquiries now an opportunity presented itself; and stopping beneath the window to call a cheerful greeting, she was rewarded by seeing Miss Lambe`s face light up with sudden pleasure. Letting down the window-sash to its fullest extent, she leaned eagerly forward. "Oh Miss Heywood, I was hoping so much to see you. Mrs. Griffiths does not think I should venture out of doors yet. But I would be so happy if you could find the time -- if you could spare even a few moments -- to come in and see my sheIl collection." Charlotte had almost forgotten Miss Lambe`s shell collection; she had no particular wish to see it herself, but could not ignore a request where her acceptance appeared likely to give such satisfaction. Of course I have time," was therefore her warm reply. "I am only going along to Number Four on some errand or other; but" -- turning to Arthur, -- "perhaps you could go ahead and discover if your sister is waiting for me?" "You mean Miss Diana Parker?" asked Miss Lambe. "I saw her go past on the way to the hotel not five minutes ago. Perhaps if we keep an eye on the window, we can see when she returns. Looking at my shells will take no time at all and," speaking very earnestly, "I have been longing to show them to you." Such a plea could not be resisted. Charlotte turned immediately towards the front door, followed by an unwilling Arthur, who was fairly certain he had not been included in the invitation but uncertain how he could now avoid being so, and more dubious still over intruding on what promised to become a distinctly feminine tete-a-tete. He shifted from one foot to the other, unable to decide whether to escape while he could or remain to make some apology. "Now if it had been bonnets, I would know, of course -- but shells! What do you think I should do?" he demanded of Charlotte. "No, no! leave the bell for a moment." But Miss Lambe must have flown down the stairs and had the door open before Charlotte touched the bell. She looked very slight and frail but showed no sign of the nervousness which usually overcame her when confronted by more than one person. The consciousness of now being their hostess may have added to her self-possession, or perhaps she was so happy to have these visitors to entertain that she forgot her shyness. Whatever the cause, she recognised Arthur`s quandary at a glance and earned his gratitude by exclaiming tactfully, -- "Oh, I do hope you will step upstairs too, Mr. Parker. You will not be very interested in my shell collection, I imagine; but if you would be so kind as to watch for your sister through the window, it would be extremely useful to us." And Arthur followed them both upstairs, feeling much less awkward, indeed quite flattered by this persuasion of his extreme usefulness on the occasion. Miss Lambe had her own private sitting room on the second floor, a pleasant, airy chamber facing the sea; into this, she had crowded a number of private treasures which Charlotte would have thought it possible to travel without. Prominent among these was a brass-bound wooden chest, fitted up with a succession of little drawers, each with its own small brass handle; and towards this they were now led. "perhaps you think me very stupid to bring so many personal possessions on a short summer stay," said Miss Lambe as if aware of Charlotte`s impressions. "But I spend so much time on my own and it gives me pleasure to look at beautiful things -- and Mrs. Griffiths is so understanding about it -- " In her embarrassment, she pulled open one of the drawers and neither Charlotte nor Arthur listened any longer to these stumbling apologies. They were staring down at a rainbow profusion of shells such as they had never known to exist: fragile heaps of pink, blue and mauve, carefully sorted into cotton-lined nests. Each shell was exquisite in itself -- round or elongated, striped, speckled or plain -- whether it belonged to a pile of the same variety or was isolated in the proud possession of a nest of its own. Pulling out more drawers as though fearful her visitors would not appreciate the collection unless they saw it all at once and in a great hurry, Miss Lambe made further explanations. "Down here at the bottom, I keep the larger ones. See, here is the biggest conch. And this one is a pinnidae. These mother-of-pearl molluscs have such wonderful grey lights, I always think. And this is just an ordinary oyster shell but it has the pearl still in it. Did you know," she added inconsequentially, "that an oyster changes sex every time a cloud passes over?" Who told you thao" demanded Arthur, much struck. "My father. He knew everything about shells and sea creatures -- about nature altogether. He read and he studied and sometimes he talked to me." Then, all at once, she retreated back into shyness; and, stammering again, turned to Charlotte with an air of timid appeal, "I hope you did not mind my pressing you so much to come in -- that you feel my shell collection is deserving? " "lt is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen," said Charlotte with such undoubted sincerity that Miss Lambe went quite pink with pleasure and gave her a quick, bright look -- almost of adoration; she said nothing, however, only touched a few of her shells lightly and affectionately before turning away. And although they had not exchanged more than half a dozen sentences, Charlotte suddenly felt they knew each other intimately; the shell collection was an odd vignette which had illuminated for her Miss Lambe`s whole personality. "Would you like to see some of my water-colour sketches of the shells?" Miss Lambe was asking now, pulling open the drawer of a small table. The success of the shells seemed to have emboldened her to reveal all her treasures; and she lifted a pile of drawings on to the table top and began turning them over very quickly. At least half a dozen had already been discarded before Charlotte and Arthur could move near enough to see them, when they immediately begged to be allowed examine each one more closely. Miss Lambe`s sketches were not of a type to skim over casually -- as unlike Miss Letitia`s dashed-off impressions as it was possible to imagine. More the drawings of a naturalist than an artist, these were painstaking, life-like reproductions of the original shells, each vein and each shadow clearly delineated, the true colour washed in with careful exactitude. At the bottom of the pile was her most recent drawing -- that of the seaweed Arthur had presented to her in Brinshore. "My word!" he said, picking this up, turning it this way and that, and finally holding it at arm`s length while Miss Lambe blushed in sudden apprehension. "But this is brilliant! This is admirable indeed! Those greens and browns so exactly the colour. A truly excellent representation of an enteromorpha." "A whao" said Charlotte. lt was Arthur`s turn to blush. "An enteromorpha -- at least I am fairly sure that is what it must be," he said, rather less emphatically. "But the problem is, since I have been trying to collect and identify all this seaweed, l have had to rely on description alone -- and enteromorphas sound much the same as cladophoras if you cannot see the colour. pressing specimens is no great help either -- they warp and discolour so quickly when taken out of the sea water. To catalogue scientifically, one should have life-like reproductions such as this. I suppose,` appealing to Miss Lambe rather diffidently, "you would not be interested in drawing more pictures of seaweed ? " "But of course -- if you bring it to me," she offered with the utmost readiness. "I have drawn all my own shells and tried to capture their colours over and over again; and the English shells, I am afraid, do not interest me. But seaweed colours are so subtle and delicate -- so many shades of green and olive, all those different hues of brown and red -- oh! I could experiment forever trying to reproduce them exactly." Charlotte, who found seaweed far less interesting than shells, carried some of Miss Lambe`s water colours to the window to look through them in the better light; while Arthur, who had become quite animared, began making plans to supply fresh seaweed at the corner house every morning. "For if you paint it the same day I collect it, we will have the very best opportunity of preserving the correct colours -- " "And perhaps, in a few days, if the weather remains warm, I can come down to the shore myself," cried Miss Lambe. "And then I could mix the colours on the spot," They both became so absorbed in their new plans and so engrossed in their discussion of seaweed, that it was Charlotte who remained at the window on the look-out for Miss Diana, And it was a full ten minutes after she had seen her through the front door of Number Four before she could prevail on Arthur to accompany her.
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