Jump to new as of May 23, 1999
I don't know if this is going anywhere, but I just wanted to try this out. It might not work for more than one part and the reason why Anne had to give up Frederick.
Part 1
Sir Walter Elliot, of Kellynch Hall Club, in Somersetshire, loved to read the Swimming Association's Yearbook for his own amusement. In the List of National Champions he found tremendous enjoyment; his admiration and respect - for himself - were aroused, by contemplating the number of titles he had won in comparison with other people, and looking in there always made him feel better.
As he turned over the almost endless pages with champions, there was always one page at which the book fell open almost automatically. The biographies section:
WALTER ELLIOT (KELLYNCH HALL)
Date of Birth: March 1, 1945
Member of Olympic Team in Tokyo 1964, Mexico 1968, Munich 1972
Olympic Gold in 1968
Member of Olympic Staff in Seoul 1988, Barcelona 1992, Atlanta 1996.
Member of National Team 1963-1974
Bronze medal winner at World's 1970
This was what had originally been printed, but Walter Elliot had improved these data by adding the exact margin by which he had become merely a third at the world championships, and the fact that he had received a life peerage for his service to the country after winning his Olympic gold. After all this information followed a long list of his achievements at the national championships, and a list of swimmers he had coached towards titles and medals, including his daughters. There was also a picture of him included in the biography, but since he did not like it, he had glued another one over it.
He had been a remarkably good swimmer in his youth, and he now exploited this status by coaching talented swimmers - although he merely supervised that, really -- and occasionally doing a bit of commentary work and handing out medals and so on.
Other than that, there was nothing very remarkable about Sir Walter Elliot, other than the mystery how he had ever got Lady Elliot crazy enough to marry him, but sadly enough that was a secret she had taken with her into her grave. She had left her three daughters to be brought up by their father. He had never remarried, because his whole life revolved around swimming, either his own achievements or those of his eldest daughter.
Elizabeth was now twenty-nine, but nowhere near retiring, it appeared. She had been on the national team constantly since she was sixteen, and she had been on every 4x100 freestyle relay team at every major championship. She was definitely her father's favourite girl. Not only did she resemble him in looks and character, but she also excelled in the same distances - the distances that mattered.
Sir Walter Elliot had two more girls, Mary and Anne, but they were much less important. They had never been on the national team and therefore had nothing Sir Walter could boast of. Anne had once almost been good enough, but it had come to nothing. Mary had married and thereby ended her career. Her only claim to success was that she had managed to marry a former swimmer, Charles Musgrove. Anne did not even have that.
While Lady Elliot had been treasurer of the club, they had been in a healthy financial situation. However, since her death things had gone downhill, because Sir Walter had taken this job upon himself, and everybody knew he could not handle money. The many trips abroad for Elizabeth and himself - under the pretence of there not being enough competition nationally - had exhausted the club's reserves so much that it was beginning to become a problem. The club owned the pool, but it was getting harder and harder to pay the electricity and water bills. Even Sir Walter could no longer deny it. He had even had to suggest to Elizabeth that she swim with only half the lights on in the morning and that the water would now be 25 instead of 26 degrees.
These measures did not prove to be enough. He had to call on Mr. Shepherd, who was a lawyer, and Lady Russell, who had also been rewarded for her athletic achievements with a title and who was one of his closest friends and in actual charge of the coaching of everybody other than Elizabeth, to see what could be done.
Part 2
Mr. Shepherd preferred to Lady Russell carry the blame of advising any measures that might be disagreeable to Sir Walter, and so the task of coming up with them fell entirely to her. Lady Russell really did her best to keep Sir Walter and his club out of trouble, but in coming up with stringent measures, she was also severely hindered by her admiration for swimming performances, and she had a firmly fixed notion of the circumstances under which such performances could only be achieved.
They must economise, that much was certain, but Lady Russell was very careful that she did not write down any suggestions that could jeopardise the professional atmosphere in which Sir Walter and Elizabeth, and to a lesser extent the other swimmers, worked. She even consulted Anne, who was a swimmer herself and who might be able to help out in certain areas. Anne's ideas had been more radical than Lady Russell's and she had been able to influence the other woman a little.
"I hope we can get your father to agree with this," Lady Russell said finally when she glanced at the result of their brainstorming. "I hope he'll see that he won't lose face if he doesn't go to every single World Cup with Elizabeth, and if he holds his training camps in Westende instead of La Réunion. It happens to the best of us. And to be honest, someone who spends too much shouldn't be too surprised when the money stream runs dry one day, and it's only natural that he should try to remedy the situation."
Anne agreed, but she was not sure her father would. If it had been entirely up to her, she would have suggested even more drastic cuts in the budget, knowing that even a small cut would hurt her father and sister so much that a little more would really make no difference. However, she did not get a chance to test this out, because even Lady Russell's suggested measures did not go down well at all with Sir Walter. He was fiercely opposed to anything that was suggested, and he refused to go along with the proposed decrease in the number of hours he rented at the pool, the number of trips abroad, or the number of swimsuits Elizabeth needed a year.
Between Mr. Shepherd and Sir Walter it was finally agreed that he should look out for a cheaper pool to train in. This had taken a great deal of persuasion and in the end there remained three choices: London, Bath and something nearby. Anne preferred something nearby, but as usually happened when Anne preferred something, Sir Walter did not, and he decided on Bath. Anne hated Bath and she did not look forward to moving there just because her father did not want to economise. At first Sir Walter had been all for London, but Mr. Shepherd had dissuaded him from that choice, because water in London pools was so expensive, and indeed everything there was expensive, apart from being too close to too many airports. Mr. Shepherd was sure that the prospect of a drive or train journey to an airport near London would put any thought of foreign trips firmly out of Sir Walter's head. As long as he was safely tucked away in Bath, things would be fine.
Lady Russell thought Bath was a good choice. She did not think Sir Walter ought to be exposed to the less sophisticated other pools in their neighbourhood, even if that was what Anne wished. And if Anne should ever be in the vicinity, she could always train in her old pool again. There was no need to get homesick, or to think that other pools were all less agreeable. Lady Russell, having decided that the removal to Bath would be very beneficial, saw more and more benefits every day, but although Sir Walter had reconciled himself to going, he had to let his house to other people while he stayed in Bath, and this was an unbearable thought.