Cold Comfort Farm

Back at home the next night, Elfine, Seth, and Flora prepare to slip out of the house for the ball before the rest of the family can stop them. Unbeknownst to them, Aunt Ada has informed Judith that she intends to come downstairs for her annual headcount of the family. Luckily, Charles, Flora’s companion for the ball, arrives to whisk them all away in his car before Aunt Ada descends the stairs.

At the ball, Elfine’s beauty draws admiration from everyone. Richard Hawk-Monitor is so moved by Elfine that he proposes to her on the spot and announces the couple’s engagement to all the guests. Flora hints at the need for a quick marriage to prevent interference from the Starkadders. She is satisfied with the outcome of the evening until her little group returns home to find all the lights on at Cold Comfort Farm.

Elfine is horrified by the lights and informs Flora that tonight must be the night that Aunt Ada has chosen for The Counting. Seth explains that the violent Starkadder clan generally loses a family member or two over the course of the year, so Aunt Ada annually keeps track of who’s left: “There was a distinct suggestion of corpse-lights and railway station waiting-rooms about the lights which shone forth from the windows of Cold Comfort” (137).

When the trio goes inside, Flora sees Aunt Ada for the first time. The old woman is holding a copy of Milk Producers’ Weekly Bulletin and Cowkeepers’ Guide and informs Flora that she saw something nasty in the woodshed when she was two. Flora concludes that the old woman is only pretending to be insane to control her family.

Flora abruptly informs everyone that Elfine is engaged to Richard, and chaos ensues. Aunt Ada starts swatting everyone within reach with her magazine. Urk is particularly upset to lose his promised bride but eventually turns his attention to Mrs. Beetle’s daughter, Meriam. At that moment, Amos announces that he is leaving the farm to go on a preaching tour in a Ford van. This piece of news further upsets Aunt Ada and stirs up the rest of the family. The wailing and chaos continue until four in the morning, when Reuben kindly escorts Flora and Elfine out of the room through a side door.

By the following morning, the chaos has settled, and Aunt Ada has been carried back to her room to contemplate the disintegration of her family: “She sat alone, a huddled, vast ruin of flesh staring unseeingly out between her wrinkled lids […] She did not think or see […] Powerless waves of fury coursed over her inert body” (147). The men of the family settle back into their daily routine. Adam, however, is so distraught by the news of Elfine’s engagement that he fails to notice that another one of the cows has lost her foot.

Later in the afternoon, Flora is expecting to receive a visit from an American movie producer of her acquaintance named Mr. Neck. She has concocted a scheme to launch Seth’s movie career by introducing him to Neck. When the producer arrives, so does Mybug, who has chosen that same day to visit Flora. She receives the two men and calls for Seth to join them. Seth’s matinee-idol looks inspire Neck to offer him a contract on the spot.

The producer whisks Seth away in his car as Aunt Ada and Judith both peer out from an upstairs window and lament the loss of their favorite. Neck promises to send the family five thousand pounds from the profits of Seth’s first film. Meanwhile, Mybug catches a glimpse of another of Flora’s strange cousins, a spinster named Rennet, and he falls in love at first sight. He immediately asks her to take a walk with him. Flora predicts that the two will be a good match for each other.