Although it begins somewhere else, Close Quarters is mostly concerned with Margot Macfayden. Readers may remember that in Jutland Cottage, Margot was the daughter of impoverished and ailing Admiral and Mrs. Phelps. She worked hard, day in and out, maintaining their house and keeping the goats and chickens without much of a thought for herself until Rose Fairweather took her in hand. At the same time, others pitched in to alleviate her condition by visiting her parents so she could get away sometimes. Nevertheless, the wealthy, older Mr. Macfayden found her crying in the henhouse one day and proposed.
At the beginning of Close Quarters, Mr. Macfayden dies after only five years of marriage, and aside from her natural grief, Margot finds herself again at a crossroads. Her parents are now cared for, but she thinks perhaps she should live with them again. However, she doesn’t want to.
She knows the Luftons would like to reclaim the house she’s been leasing, so she starts looking for a house, but she can’t find anything suitable. No one but the readers know that Canon Fewling (Tubby to his friends) suffered a great disappointment when he learned she was engaged.
Although I found the ending of this book more touching than the last few, there were several occasions when Thirkell repeated conversations that she has not only had in other books but that had already appeared in this one, as if she couldn’t remember what she had written. The story of Mr. Wickham’s reluctant proposal to Margot is repeated three or four times, for example, while a snobby conversation about common mispronunciations occurs more than once. There is a stupid recurring joke about the Parkinsons’ last name that I don’t understand but suspect is more snobbery, and several different people opine that Mrs. Parkinson wears the pants in the family. Also, Margot’s lack of undergarments when Rose took her in hand is mentioned again.
Maybe I’m getting tired of Thirkell’s little conversational tidbits, but they seem also to occur more often. I liked the central theme of this book but disliked a lot of the chatter. And that’s disappointing, because often the chatter is amusing. Anyway, only two more books to go.
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