Anything pleasant, that is.'
'How nice,' I said.
I caught snatches of Beatrice's conversation on the other side.
'We had to put old Marksman down,' she was saying.
'You remember old Marksman?
The best hunter I ever had.'
'Oh, dear, not old Marksman?' said her grandmother.
'Yes, poor old man. Got blind in both eyes, you know.'
'Poor Marksman,' echoed the old lady.
I thought perhaps it was not very tactful to talk about blindness, and I glanced at the nurse.
She was still busy clicking her needles.
'Do you hunt, Mrs de Winter?' she said.
'No, I'm afraid I don't,' I said.
'Perhaps you will come to it.
We are all very fond of hunting in this part of the world.'
'Yes.'
'Mrs de Winter is very keen on art,' said Beatrice to the nurse.
'I tell her there are heaps of spots in Manderley that would make very jolly pictures.'
'Oh rather,' agreed the nurse, pausing a moment from the fury of knitting.
'What a nice hobby.
I had a friend who was a wonder with her pencil.
We went to Provence together one Easter and she did such pretty sketches.'
'How nice,' I said.
'We're talking about sketching,' shouted Beatrice to her grandmother, 'you did not know we had an artist in the family, did you?'
'Who's an artist?' said the old lady.
'I don't know any.'
'Your new granddaughter,' said Beatrice: 'you ask her what I gave her for a wedding present.'
I smiled, waiting to be asked.
The old lady turned her head in my direction.
'What's Bee talking about?' she said.
'I did not know you were an artist.
We've never had any artists in the family.'
'Beatrice was joking,' I said: 'of course I'm not an artist really.
I like drawing as a hobby.
I've never had any lessons.
Beatrice gave me some lovely books as a present.'
'Oh,' she said, rather bewildered.
'Beatrice gave you some books, did she?
Rather like taking coals to Newcastle, wasn't it?
There are so many books in the library at Manderley.'
She laughed heartily.
We all joined in her joke.
I hoped the subject would be left at that, but Beatrice had to harp on it.
'You don't understand, Gran,' she said.
"They weren't ordinary books.
They were volumes on art.
Four of 'em.'
The nurse leant forward to add her tribute.
'Mrs Lacy is trying to explain that Mrs de Winter is very fond of sketching as a hobby.
So she gave her four fine volumes all about painting as a wedding present.'