Our American Cousin

She never really forgave Robert for what happened. Violet said in times like these, one always looks for someone to blame. But in this case it was a simple reality. The man could not conceive of a situation in which he did not have authority, willing to defer only to another man with a title. Tom was right that day in the room at the Grantham Arms, "Your problem is the same as the rest of your lot. You think you have a monopoly on honor." And there was no honor in Robert the night of the birth, or in the days following. No honor in ignoring his son-in-law's status as next of kin. No honor in avoiding his daughter and her illness because it showed him she was not coming back, big with his ex-driver's child. She was Mrs. Branson, mother to a new generation of Bransons, children who would be so very different from him.

Constance Levinson never called Robert "Uncle." She could see why others thought so well of him. He was reasonable, comparatively anyway. He took seriously the job of guardianship over the estate, including its tenants. He was, on the whole, a kind man. But he was a man of his time and station, and that was incompatible with her own modern philosophies. Robert Crawley was a good friend so long as he was comfortable. And like her grandmother Martha said, a friend only in times of comfort is no true friend.

When she came to Downton, she watched them all in the drawing room, the dining room, in any of the numerous silk wallpapered rooms of the grand house. Her family was the reason these particular people sat in these rooms, yet she was always an outsider (gratefully) looking in, this American girl in Yorkshire. Sybil was always good to make eye contact with, as was Mary and even Edith. Her warm aunt Cora had instilled some minute Americanism in her cousins, just enough to resist the rigidity of their world.

In the weeks after the birth, Constance did her best to avoid being alone with Robert, lest she say something that could not be taken back. Instead, she made herself useful, accompanying her aunt to the hospital to see Sybil, sitting with her cousin when Cora was catching up on sleep. She rocked the baby, walking back and forth across the hospital room and then in the Downton nursery after Dr. Clarkson had given his approval for the baby to go home several weeks before her mother. Her little niece (her cousin technically, but niece for all intents and purposes) was a lively thing. "You'll be fierce like your mother," Constance said as Sybbie looked up at her. Sybil Saoirse. Constance had rather enjoyed the look Tom's face when he announced his daughter's name to the rest of the family. He looked calm, exhausted, and supremely happy. It was a stark contrast to Robert's face, clearly not having considered that Sybil and her husband would give their daughter an Irish name. He had also clearly not considered that they would be baptizing her a Catholic, the news of which had Robert almost choking on his breakfast. Constance had rather enjoyed that too.