Jenny and Mrs. Vassinger meet again

                                    

                                          
Jenny
                          
"He asked you out? Well, that's progress isn't it?"
                          
"Oh, I don't know," said Jenny, her expression prim and business-like. "The way he did it was very brother-and-sister. Perhaps we just need to accept that this is never going to happen."
                          
Mrs Vassinger gave an amused frown from across the restaurant table – silver cutlery, two glasses of mineral water, a vase and its flower. "Oh, don't be defeatist, you've already won half the battle. No point giving up now."
                          
"The battle?"
                          
"With someone like Simon, you don't just marry the man, you marry the family."
                          
"And we are already as good as betrothed, you mean? You and I? Simon is an only child. Your husband is temporarily inconvenienced. The house and the servants are all gone. You say family, but what you mean is yourself."
                          
"Precisely. And I am not without influence over my son."
                          
"This is just a game isn't it. You've never believed that Simon will marry me. You just enjoy playing along."
                          
"My dear, you're doing what Simon would call breaking the third wall. If it is a game, then please don't spoil it."
                          
"By being honest? Does this sport of yours have a habit of leaving casualties in its wake?"
                          
"You? Oh tosh. You might be too young to fully appreciate the value of entertainment to an old lady, but to suggest that you are some flimsy wee thing tied to the railway tracks of love ... don't be so theatrical. You're a tough one. I could tell that the first time I met you. And in that you are exactly what Simon needs. It may well be he is too pig-headed to realize it, but the thought of him married to one of those pieces of air-headed frilliness he is too scared to bring home to meet his mother, ... well these lunches are worth it to me if they do nothing else but keep that prospect out of my mind."
                          
"Oh I enjoy our lunches together immensely, don't get me wrong about that. But I'm right aren't I? If Simon were interested in me, he would have done a bit more to show it by now."
                          
"Oh tosh again. You're too pessimistic. You know they say that men will wander, when they are young, but that ultimately they are attracted to women who resemble their mothers."
                          
"And you think I fit that bill?"
                          
"There are elements I recognize. You've had a very different upbringing, of course, that's to be factored in. It's left you with an excess of deference." She paused, smiling, to consider this thought. "Perhaps a little more arrogance would help. You presume too little my dear."
                          
"I'll bear that in mind," said Jenny, the archness in her voice quickly shattered by the giggles it provoked in the both of them.
                          
"You grew up in the inland, didn't you? Where people live at face value, or at least I imagine they do, never having spent time among them myself."
                          
"I suppose so. Some of them, certainly."
                          
"Our veneer of sophistication, the duplicity and playacting – it must seem quite attractive to you, coming to it fresh as you are. Seductive even. So long as you're in on the joke, of course. Frustrating if you aren't."
                          
"Perhaps I've been around you long enough to be capable of finding it both at once."
                          
"That's the spirit."
                          
Jenny's expression turned thoughtful. "But really, from your point of view, wouldn't it be better if Simon married the daughter of someone rich?"
                          
Mrs Vassinger shook her head. "The era of the pre-nup, remember? But don't sell yourself short, my dear. You are the only daughter of land-owners."