CHAPTER FIVE

They were sitting together at a performance of Beethoven's fifth symphony, which, at the time, was the most popular music in all of Europe. Each person enjoyed it in his or her own way. Aunt Munt would sit and move her foot up and down with the music, while Tibby, who was musically trained, would hold the book of music in his hands and read it as he listened. And then there was Helen, who imagined all kinds of heroic events and disasters when she listened.

"Who's that boy Margaret's talking with?" asked Aunt Munt after the first part of the music had finished, "Is she in love?"

"I don't know, auntie," answered Helen, while waiting for the second part of the symphony to begin. When it did begin, she listened very carefully, and the music made her think of horrible ghosts walking about the Earth. It was as if Beethoven were saying that there were no heroes here, no hope in the world. But then the music changed and there would be a great battle and the horrible ghosts would disappear. Helen knew that most people, like the Wilcoxes, would cheer and say that everything was once again safe and good in the world. But people like Helen knew better. And, of course, the ghosts did come back in the music. And even though he filled the ending of his music with heroes and celebration, the ghosts, if you listened carefully, were still there. This was Beethoven's warning to the world. Helen wondered who, other than herself, understood this. It deeply upset her and made everything in her world seem so unstable. Her fear of the future became so great that she could no longer comfortably sit through the rest of the performance. She immediately got up and ran out of the music hall.

"Where is she going?" asked Aunt Munt.

"I'm sorry," interrupted Margaret's companion, "but I believe that that young woman just ran away with my umbrella."

"Oh, my goodness!" cried Margaret. She asked Tibby to go after Helen, but just then the music started again, and it would have been considered very impolite to leave the hall.

"You could give me your address and ... " Margaret whispered to the man.

"No, it's nothing," the man whispered back. However, he was actually quite upset. He thought that he might have been cheated by these girls.

When the performance ended, Margaret gave the young man her address and invited him to come by sometime for his umbrella.

"In fact, I'm going there now, if you'd like to come along," she said.

"That would be lovely," he answered, following her out the door.

Along the way they talked about art and music, while, behind them, Tibby tested Aunt Munt to see if she remembered the parts of the symphony he had thought most interesting and important.

The young man found Margaret to be quite an intelligent woman. She seemed to be able to talk about almost anything. He wished that he knew as much as she did about the world. So many artists' names she mentioned he had never heard of. He felt stupid and embarrassed, and, most of all, he was worried about getting his umbrella back. In fact, he could not stop thinking about his umbrella.

" ... So, what do you think? Do you agree with me?" asked Margaret at one point.

He did not know what to say to her. Luckily, she did not wait for his answer and continued the discussion herself.

The young man found her very interesting and knowledgeable, but he did not find her to be very pretty at all. He guessed that she was probably just one of those people full of information but empty of any spirit or soul.

"So, how about joining us for tea?" Margaret suddenly asked him.

He was surprised by the question, and did not actually want to stay, for he feared that she was attracted to him and might want something more than just a nice talk.

They were standing just in front of Wickham Place and Margaret began to search for her keys. Not finding them anywhere, she knocked on the window and called for Helen to open the door. A few moments later, Helen appeared in the doorway with her hair in great disorder. She was apparently still quite upset about Beethoven's symphony.

"Do you realize that you took this man's umbrella?" asked Margaret.

"What? I did? Oh, how terribly stupid of me. I'm so sorry. Let's have a look around. What kind of umbrella was it?" she said, beginning to search the hallway. "Is it this one? No, of course not, it's in much too terrible a condition. It must be mine."

But, in fact, it was his, and he grabbed it out of Helen's hands and then turned and ran out of the house without looking back.

"Now, look at what you did, Helen!" cried Margaret. "You frightened the poor man, and I had just asked him in for tea! My God, you can be so stupid sometimes!"

"Well, maybe it was for the best, dear," said Aunt Munt, "He might have been a thief or something."

"Oh, Aunt Juley, remember what my father always said? It's better to believe in the honesty of strangers than not to believe in it. If he had stolen something of mine, I wouldn't have minded at all."

"No, I don't think that bad men visit our house," Helen added, "I think that the men who come just behave differently when they visit us. And I think that it's all Tibby's fault! If he would be more welcoming to them, they might feel more comfortable and act more natural with us."

Tibby, who had just served them all a cup of hot tea, sat in his chair and looked a little hurt by Helen's words.

"Don't blame Tibby for our troubles," said Margaret, a little angrily, "That's not fair! I think that you wish this house were just more like the W's."

"Who?" asked Tibby.

"Never mind, Tibby," said Helen, "That's none of your business."

"Our home is actually quite the opposite of the W's," explained Margaret. "Their home is very manly ... too manly. Our house, on the other hand, is quite womanly. We just have to make sure it's not too womanly."

"Who's W?" asked Tibby, again.

"You'll never know," laughed Helen.

All of them laughed now, actually, and they went on talking for many hours. However, the conversation did not return to the subject of that young man with the umbrella until the very end of the evening, when Helen said that it was unfortunate that he had been frightened away. For the three of them, this was a reminder of that reality that Margaret had mentioned. Outside of their little world of art and money were people like him, who did not benefit from the Schlegel's kindness, and were sometimes even frightened by it.

(end of section)