RANDOM JOTTINGS

"Mrs Ames is queen of Riseborough
society. Sceptre firmly grasped in her podgy little hand, she reigns
supreme in a world of strawberry teas, high street gossip and riotous
insurrections by misguided pretenders like Mrs Altham, Miss Brooks and
dear cousin Millie.  But, Mrs Ames is ten years older than her husband
and beginning to feel all her fifty-seven years"

Yes it is E F Benson, one of the latest reprinted by the Bloomsbury Group and yes we are in familiar territory as the reader starts enjoying the
Tilling type infighting and jockeying for social position, amusing and
witty as always, but gradually realises that there is dissatisfaction
and vague unhappiness underneath it all.  Mrs Ames husband, Lyndhurst,
forms a romantic attachment to his wife's cousin Millie, who is married
to the local doctor, Dr Carter.  They flirt in a gentle, understated
way.  Millie is a woman who makes men feel desirable and such fine
fellows:

"She gave him one of those shy little
deprecating glances that made him involuntarily feel that he was the
most agreeable companion.   'Ah you are being wicked now…..you
understand better than anybody".

He becomes drawn into a semi-serious
flirtation which takes place over the summer months.  It gradually
becomes noticeable to Mrs Ames and it is then that she has to sit down
and ponder on her feelings for Lyndhurst, and realises that she is fond
of him, she loves him and has no intention of letting anything further
happen.  She takes herself off for a series of restorative treatments in
order to rekindle her husband's interest but despite her best
endeavours, this is a failure.  She banks on her husband's love of
his
easy life, his position in the small town where they live, the years
they have been married and is sure this will stop him doing anything
reckless.

However, matters progress further than
either Mrs Ames or Dr Carter thought they would and both of the middle
aged lovers decide to leave together.  Cousin Millie had entered into
this flirtation in a light hearted manner as a mere diversion from her
rather boring life but something had crept into her consciousness, had
disturbed her:

"Neither wifehood nor motherhood had
awakened her womanhood.  In that she was a woman she was that most
dangerous of all created or manufactured things, an unexploded shell,
liable to blow to bits both itself and any who handled her…….the
heart of it had never been penetrated by the love that could transform
its violence into strength…"

For most of this novel I found Cousin
Millie a rather irritating character, one of these helpless feminine
creatures who drift rather selfishly through life using beauty and charm
to get their way.  Nothing mean or spiteful about her, just an
acceptance that she was beautiful and desirable and that she did not
have to make much of an effort to be loved.  But danger lurks and she
feels real emotion for the first time and, though Colonel Ames was drawn
to her, it is made clear that he is afraid of being too heavily
involved and when it comes to taking the final step, has huge doubts:

"….for a moment all these
trivialities stood away from him and for an interval he saw where he
stood and what he was doing – the vileness the sordidness, the vulgarity
of it…"

Mrs Ames is not just another Mapp and Lucia type gossipy novel.   It
has very many funny witty moments, particularly a Shakespearian fancy
dress party where all the ladies decide to keep their costumes a secret
and then all turn up as Cleopatra, the usual jockeying for social
position and the petty intrigues and gossiping, but ultimately this is
rather a melancholy, sad little story.

"Millie you are not going to see
Lyndhurst….the tension of those wide childish eyes slowly relaxed and
her head sank forward and there came the terrible and blessed tears in
wild cataract and streaming storm.  And Mrs Ames looking at her felt all
her righteousness relax; she had only pity for this poor destitute soul
………..slowly the tears ceased and the sobs were still and Millie
raised her dim, swollen eyes. 

'I had better go home, I wonder if
you would let me wash my face cousin Amy.  I must be a perfect fright'. 
'Yes dear Millie' said she 'but there is no hurry we shall have some
tea'

'I don't see how I can ever be happy
again' she said.

'No Millie; said the other 'none of
us three are that exactly.  We shall all have to be patient, very
patient and ordinary'

Life will go on as usual and gradually Colonel Ames and
Cousin Millie will get used to seeing each other again and this will
fade away, though I cannot help but feel that while Colonel Ames will be
happy to settle back into his quiet routine, Millie will not.  She has
been awakened to deeper feelings and I feel that her happiness in her
previous life will never be enough for her.   As I finished this book I
thought of Edna Pontellier in The Awakening by Kate Chopin, another
woman whose deeper feelings were aroused by a summer love affair.  There
was no way back for her, so what will happen to Millie? 

Val Hennessy reviews this today in the Mail under the heading "Desperate Housewives go to War".  She says it is 'funny, astutely obserbed and scattered with exquisite descriptions – sublime satire'.  Well it is all she says and yet I feel she has totally missed the sadness and broken dreams portrayed in this book. Yes it is funny but it is so much more.