Did Giles feel guilty in Autum Term?

[colne-dsr.livejournal.com]

We never find out what Giles felt about Nicola running away to Port Wade in Autumn Term. From Nicola's point of view, he was aloof, annoyed (or even furious) with her, and Nicola seemed to think that was fair enough and that it was her own fault.

But on the other hand, Nicola was 12 and at school for the first time, and I reckon was always likely to take him seriously. Did Giles have any feelings that perhaps it was his fault? That he'd behaved irresponsibly?

He doesn't appear again until Run Away Home, two+ years later, by which time it's all been forgotten. Has anyone any ideas what might have happened in the meantime?

Comments

[lizzzar.livejournal.com]

I think that Giles didn't seriously intend to recommend
naughty behaviour by the twins, and so he doesn't
feel responsible for Nicola briefly running away from
Kingscote - he just think she 's acted like an idiot,
and she agrees. I find Giles's officer class attitudes a
little irritating, but I don't think Nicola ever really questions them
- her feeling for Giles seems close to hero worship.

[antfan.livejournal.com]

Agree with Lizzar. He's just being flippant so doesn't feel responsible...he sends her a postcard later that term, which doesn't message the Port Wade incident, and she's relieved. I think the implication is that it's water under the bridge, and so won't be referred to again.

I agree with finding Giles pretty irritating too, though never very sure why. Don't think he's really to blame over the Port Wade thing. He just comes over as irritating!

[brokenlibertine.livejournal.com]

I don't think he felt guilty - irritated at his little sister turning up without warning and also slightly worried that the repercussions might fall upon him!

[catwithcreamy.livejournal.com]

Giles is her hero and can do no wrong... at least he puts her back safely on the train! Sending her the picture of his ship later on is an olive branch and possibly even a tacet apology: I think it's stated elsewhere that, among the Marlows, apologies took place 'unsaid' (or words to that effect), so maybe he did feel guilty.

[colne-dsr.livejournal.com]

I'd forgotten about the postcard, which does at least show that he has no hard feelings, but doesn't say much about whether he takes any blame. I can't help thinking that if Nicola had been caught and expelled, Mrs. Marlow might have had something to say to him.

[biskybat.livejournal.com]

Giles' relationship with Nicola (and Lawrie) in AT seemed to be based on non stop teasing, more uncle-ish than older brother sometimes. I don't think he had the understanding to realise that Nicola was liable to take his comments seriously. The twins do come across as very young and gullible in AT although I believe it was actually Lawrie rather than Nicola who thought that Giles was joking in his suggestions that they ought to be bad.

I don't think for one moment that Giles would feel Nicola's escapade was in any way his fault. He'd have to possess some sensitivity and there isn't much evidence of that anywhere!

As a child reading AT I didn't mind Giles. As an adult reading RAH I found him unbearable. Especially his attitude towards Peter at times.

[(Anonymous)]

As a child reading AT I didn't mind Giles. As an adult reading RAH I found him unbearable. Especially his attitude towards Peter at times.

Me too.

[ethelmay.livejournal.com]

Oh, by the way, does anyone know what "like kine in the doorway" refers to? in the speech that Nicola doesn't listen to, but thinks it must have been funny as even Chas and Rose are laughing?

[colne-dsr.livejournal.com]

I believe "kine" is cattle, but I don't know the anecdote.

[antfan.livejournal.com]

I don't know, but wonder if it is something classical - kine sounds like the Odyssey to me, for some reason. The speaker is a classicist, isn't he, and Nicola has just received Homer as a prize, so it might fit?

The only reference to kine in my Oxford Dictionary of Quotations though is biblical - Genesis - I think it's Pharoah's dream from Joseph story.

I guess it needn't be anything real, but the references usually are to something real in AF.

[catwithcreamy.livejournal.com]

Yes, I've come across 'kine' in a biblical context. Maybe someone could work backwards and compose the joke...A 'holiday task' for someone stuck in a check-in queue this summer?

[ethelmay.livejournal.com]

Here's the correct quotation:

And of all that Latimer's don said, punctuated by amusement and applause, she heard only one half-sentence: "--and so do remember, my dear young ladies, as you grow older, not, I beg you, to stand like kine in the gateway." Which must have been a terrific funny if you'd heard the whole of it, for even Rose was laughing: perhaps she'd remember to ask her....

[biskybat.livejournal.com]

There's something similarly baffling in FC at the beginning where Karen is doing the crossword and can't get the clue: 'Shakespeare said it'. It's two words, five and two, (I think) and Cousin Jon can't sove it either. We're never told what it is.

I used to think it might tie in with Shakespeare's Fear No More that Nick sings at the Colebridge festival but actually I think it's more likely that AF was doing the crossword while she was writing and this was a clue she couldn't solve.

[(Anonymous)]

I think the problem with Giles is that Nicola and Lawrie, being so much younger, see Rowan, Karen and Giles as absolutely trustworthy mature adults. Rowan actually is unusually mature for her age, so they're able to keep on thinking of her that way. Karen isn't, but it takes awhile before Nicola is able to revise her own mental evaluation of Karen's abilities. I get the impression, from what we see of Giles, that he's more like Karen than Rowan, in the sense that he's not really that much more grown-up than your average 20-year-old. But Nicola and Lawrie see him so rarely that they don't have to realize that, and we see Giles mainly through the eyes of hero-worshiping Nicola. So the fact that Giles would make a miscalculation like encouraging Nicola to misbehave, and would then get angry with her for ruining his day off, comes across as a shock rather than as perfectly normal behavior for someone in his late teens/ early twenties.

Katy

[colne-dsr.livejournal.com]

We've been here before with the crossword question. No answers four years ago - can anyone add to it now?

http://community.livejournal.com/trennels/24564.html

[antfan.livejournal.com]

taking up Richenda's suggestion on the earlier thread, of quoth something, could it be "quoth him"? A Shakespearian way of saying "he said it"? I agree it's rather weak.