Small Pleasures

In a letter to Martha, posted by Alice, Jean asks if Martha has any information to share with her about Gretchen. Jean adds that she has Gretchen’s full consent to investigate the curious circumstances surrounding Margaret’s birth.

Jean calls on the Tilbury family to have her measurements taken so Gretchen can make her a dress. Though Jean had committed to maintaining a professional distance, she feels grateful to have a new friend.

To come to the Tilbury residence on a Sunday afternoon, Jean had to make arrangements for someone else to be with her mother. Luckily, a chance meeting with her mother’s old friend Winnie Melsom gave her the opportunity. Jean noticed Winnie carrying her groceries home, helped her with her bags, and extended an invitation to her mother’s home. Winnie also has a daughter who moved out of England, though Winnie’s daughter writes home often and stays in better touch than Dorrie does. At home, while Jean washed and set her mother’s hair, she let her know Winnie will be coming by, trying not to make it obvious that she’d already made plans. She didn’t conceal this as well as she had hoped, though, and her mother felt upset she must entertain Winnie on her own.

While visiting the Tilbury home, Jean notices the marital bedroom has two twin beds, rather than a single larger bed. In the garden, Howard tends to the vegetables in a shirt and tie. Jean notices how well-kept the garden and yard are. Jean doesn’t have enough time to keep her garden as well since she has no one with whom to share the housework. She tells Gretchen that, though her mother never says Jean can’t leave her alone, Jean feels guilty when she does so.

Jean asks Gretchen about Margaret hearing voices. Gretchen is the one who suggested it’s angels and doesn’t worry about it. Jean notices how nicely Gretchen keeps her serving utensils and how well she bakes, and then agrees to play badminton with Howard, Margaret, and Margaret’s friend Lizzie. Jean notices that Howard plays like a gentleman.

When Gretchen thinks no one is observing her, a look of melancholy passes over her face, which she otherwise never lets show. After giving Margaret another comic book, called Girls, Howard offers to drive Jean home so she doesn’t have to take the bus. Once they’re alone in the car, Jean tells Howard that she knows how to drive. Howard replies that Gretchen doesn’t like to drive. Jean suggests most husbands prefer their wives don’t, and thinks about how vehicles afford the privacy needed for courtship between men and women. Howard thanks Jean for visiting; he is grateful for Gretchen to have a friend.

While she makes her way through Chelsea to visit Martha Campkin, Jean reflects on past experiences indulging in French food and taxi rides with her Aunt Rosa, a family friend. Jean notices the run-down quality of the neighborhood and feels out of place. She finds Martha’s address through Martha’s father, a vicar, who tells Jean they’ve not had contact for some time. In Martha’s house, Jean sees evidence of an artist—canvases everywhere, an easel, and the unpleasant smell of turpentine and cigarettes. Martha walks with a stick, wearing leather splints on her hands as she leads Jean through the house—offering tea without milk, since the milk is spoiled.

The stickiness of the floor and the clutter—Martha’s undergarments hung on a wooden frame for anyone to see—take Jean aback. Instead of asking straight away about Gretchen, Jean probes Martha about her relationship with her father and St. Cecilia’s more generally. Martha reveals her lack of faith and confirms that, during her time at St. Cecilia’s, none of the women were ever around boys. Jean uses this as a segue into her real line of questioning, asking Martha about Gretchen’s claim.

Martha believes Gretchen to be lying about the date of conception, likely to protect herself. Jean tells Martha that she’s the only person interviewed so far to believe Gretchen is untruthful. While Martha goes to attend to a visitor, Jean looks through her paintings. Martha primarily paints desolate cityscapes destroyed by time or war, with one small detail of beauty, like a flower or rainbow. When Martha returns after dealing with the disgruntled husband of another tenant, Jean compliments her on her work. Martha brushes it off: She cares not for praise or criticism and instead paints only for herself. When Jean leaves, Martha gives her a print to give to Gretchen—a painting of tangerines in a bowl.

On her way home from Martha’s, Jean is stuck at the train station due to a delay; though other passengers gossip that someone has fallen on the tracks, Jean doubts this. To Jean’s surprise, Howard is also stuck at the train station. They discuss the delay and, when Howard’s train arrives before Jean’s, he offers to drive her home if she’ll take the train with him. Jean protests, but then agrees.

As the train, which was initially packed, begins to empty, Howard seems to be working on a crossword, but is actually watching Jean. Jean stops working on her notes from her interview with Martha and joins Howard, who doesn’t have a pen to complete the crossword. He claims he’s been solving it in his head, which Jean challenges. After Jean gives Howard a pen, he fills out the crossword with the phrase, “These things give me brain ache, Jean. They’re harder than they look” (112). The two laugh.

Once in Howard’s car, Jean shares details about her family life—that Dorrie lives in Kenya, and that their father died in the war, so it’s just Jean and her mother. Jean also tells Howard about her parents’ divorce—how unhappy they were and that her father began seeing someone else. Jean feels a sense of relief to be sharing such intimate details with Howard, including the fact that she supports her mother and receives some financial aid from her uncle. Jean leaves Howard, giving him the painting for Gretchen that Martha sent along.

Jean gives her mother a nightgown she purchased before visiting Martha and they spend a pleasant evening together. Jean feels invigorated by her time with Howard.

This chapter contains letters and diary entries.

Jean writes to Dorrie, sending her a cigarette case she found at an antique store. In a diary entry, Alice describes Gretchen and Martha hoarding their painkillers and sleeping pills and taking them all at once after three days, adding that Martha was certainly the perpetrator of this offense. When Gretchen left, Alice writes, she was in excellent health, but Martha was subdued and sad. Dr. Lloyd-Jones writes to Jean that Gretchen and Margaret’s blood types match; the doctors would like to conduct further tests. A letter from Gretchen requests Jean’s presence for a fitting the upcoming weekend.

Jean buys a rabbit to give to Margaret. Jean’s mother tells Jean it’s a poorly thought-out decision—Jean didn’t consider what Gretchen and Howard would think. Jean snaps at her mother for spoiling a kind gesture. Jean feels that she would have received the same response had she wanted a rabbit as a child. Instead of apologizing, Jean is overly kind to her mother throughout rest of the evening.

Jean calls Howard to schedule her dress fitting and asks whether it’s inappropriate that she purchased a rabbit for Margaret. Howard, relieved by this turn in the conversation, says he isn’t sure how Gretchen feels about rabbits. Unless Jean hears from him, she should bring the rabbit when she comes to try on her new dress. She says doesn’t want to cause any trouble—something that in the future she’ll be surprised she said.

Jean visits the Tilbury family and gives Margaret her rabbit. Margaret is overjoyed at the gift, and Gretchen seems grateful to Jean, too. Gretchen then asks whether Jean would consider being a closer friend to Margaret—particularly if something were to happen to Gretchen—a request which both delights and concerns Jean. Jean agrees, all the while feeling a bit disappointed that Howard is at work while she visits the Tilbury home.

Jean, wearing her new dress which fits her perfectly, updates the rest of the team at the Echo on the medical findings in Gretchen’s case. The results are overwhelmingly confirming Gretchen’s story, but not yet conclusive, something that the men at the paper find intriguing. Jean tells the men she feels confident Gretchen wouldn’t sell the story to another paper for more money, something they are worried about. They invite Jean out for drinks again, which she declines because all her free time is reserved for the Tilbury family.

Mrs. Melsom invites Mrs. Swinney to an event hosted by the Mother’s Union, a Christian association dedicated to charitable work. After much protest and a lot of convincing from both Jean and Mrs. Melsom, Mrs. Swinney agrees to go. Jean feels pleased that she’ll have a free Saturday on which she can visit the Tilbury family.