menu_book Chapter 1

CHAPTER I. THE GAME OF CONSEQUENCES The firelight flickered on the nursery wall, and the children sat round the table, learning the new game which the nursery-maids said they would like ever so, directly they understood it. I understand it already, said Alex, the eldest, tossing her head proudly.

Look, Barbara, you fold the piece of paper like this, and then give it to Cedric, because he's next to you, and I give mine to you, and Emily gives hers to me. That's right, isn't it, Emily? Quite right, Miss Alex. What a clever girl, to be sure.

Here, Master Baby, you can play with me. You're too little to do it all by yourself. He isn't baby anymore. We've got to call him Archie now. The new little sister is baby, said Alex dictatorially. She liked always to be the one to give information,

and Emily had only been with them a little while. The children's own nurse would have told her to mind her own business or to wait till she was asked before teaching her grandmother. But Emily said complacently, To be sure, Miss Alex, and such a big boy as Mr. Archie is too,

now you all write down the name of a gentleman. What gentleman? asked Cedric judicially. He was a little boy of eight, with serious grey eyes and a good deal of dignity. Why, any gentleman? Someone you all know. I know, I know.

Alex, always the most easily excited of them all, scribbled on her piece of paper and began to bounce up and down on her chair. Hurry up, Barbara, you're so slow. I don't know who to put. Alex began to whisper, and Barbara at once said,

nurse doesn't allow us to whisper it's bad manners you horrid little prig alex was furious barbara's priggishness always put her into a temper because she felt it unconsciously to be reflection on her own infallibility as the eldest miss barbara said emily angrily it's not for you to say what nurse allows or doesn't allow i'm looking after you now the idea indeed barbara's pale, pointed little face grew very red, but she did not cry, as Alex, in spite of her twelve years,

would almost certainly have cried at such a snub. She set her mouth vindictively and shot a very angry look at Alex out of her blue eyes. Then she wrote something on the slip of paper, shielding it with her hand so that her sister could not read it. Cedric was printing in large capitals, easily legible, but no one was interested in what Cedric wrote. There was a good deal of whispering between Emily and little Archie, and then the papers were folded up once more and passed round the table

again. But when do we see what we've written? asked Alex impatiently. Not till the end of the game, then we read them out. That's where the fun comes in, said Emily. It was a long while before the papers were done, and most of the children found it very difficult to decide what he said to her, what she replied, and what the world said. But at last even Barbara, always lag-last, folded her slip very grimy and thumb marked and put it with the others into Emily's apron.

Now then giggled the nursery maid pull one out Master Archie and I'll see what it says. Archie snatched at a paper and they opened it. Listen said Emily the queen met Master Archie whoever of you put the queen Cedric cried the other children Cedric's loyalty to his sovereign was a byword in the nursery. Well, the Queen met Master Archie in the park. She said to him, no, and he answered her, you dirty little boy, go home and wash your face. Well, if that didn't

ought to be the other way round. I wish it was me she'd met in the park, said Cedric somberly. I might have gone back to Buckingham Palace with her and, go on, Emily, go on, cried Alex impatiently. Don't listen to Cedric. What comes next? The consequences was, whatever's here, said Emily, pretending an inability to decipher her own writing. Well or never, the consequences was a wedding ring. Whoever went and thought of that now? And the world said... The nursery door

opened and Alex shrieked, oh finish it quick! She knew instinctively that it was Nurse and that Nurse would be certain to disapprove of the new game. Don't you make that noise, Alex, said Nurse sharply. You'll disturb the baby with your screaming. For a moment, Alex wondered if the game was to be allowed to proceed. But Barbara, well known to be Nurse's favourite, must needs say to her in an amiable little voice such as she never used to her brothers and sisters,

Emily's been teaching us such a funny new game, Nurse. Come and play with us. I've no time to play as you very well know, with all your clothes wanting looking over the way they do, Nurse told her complacently. What's the game? Alex kicked Barbara under the table, but without much hope, and at the same moment cedric remarked very distinctly it is called consequences and archie met the queen in the park i wish it had been me instead well exclaimed nurse that's the way you do when my backs turn miss emily teaching them such vulgar nonsensical games as that never did i hear now give me those papers this minute

she did not wait to be given anything but snatched the little slips out of emily's apron and threw them on to the fire i'm not going to have no consequences in my nursery and don't you believe it remarked nurse but omnipotent though nurse was in the eyes of the clare children she could not altogether compass this feat there were consequences of all sorts cedric who was obstinate and barbara also obstinate and rather sly as well continued to play at the new game in corners by themselves refusing to admit alex to their society because she told them that they were playing it all wrong she knew that they were not playing it as emily had taught them and was prepared to set them right although she felt uncertain in the depths of her heart as to whether she herself could remember it all but at least she knew more than barbara who was silly and a copy-cat or than cedric who had concentrated on the possibilities the game presented to him of a hypothetical encounter between himself and his sovereign the game for cedric consisted in the ever-lengthening conversation which took place under the heading of what he said to her and what she replied when her majesty proceeded under cedric's laborious pencil to invite him to drive her in her own carriage and pair to buckingham palace

alex said scornfully that cedric was a silly little boy and of course the queen wouldn't say that to which cedric turned a perfectly deaf ear and continued slowly to evolve amenities eminently satisfactory to his admiration for her majesty alex went away shrugging her shoulders but secretly she knew that cedric's indifference had got the better of her however much she might laugh with the other children or sometimes even in a superior way with the grown-ups when the children went into the drawing-room at cedric's slowness and his curious passion of harping upon one idea at a time alex was subconsciously aware of cedric as a force and one which could ultimately always defeat her own diffused unbalanced energies if any one laughed at alex or despised one of her many enthusiasms she would quickly grow ashamed of it and try to pretend that she had never really been in earnest in the same way she would affect qualities and instincts which did not belong to her with the hope of attracting and of gaining affection but cedric went his own way as genuinely undisturbed by nurse's scoldings and hustlings as by his elder sister's mockery which had its origin in her secret longing to prove to herself in spite of her own inmost convictions that she was the dominant spirit in her little world it always made her angry when cedric left her gibes unanswered not from a desire to provoke her further but simply from his complete absorption in the matter in hand and his utter indifference to alex's comments

don't you hear what i say alex asked sharply no said cedric baldly i'm not listening don't interrupt me alex you're playing it all wrong you and barbara two silly little babies she cried angrily and incoherently and it's a stupid vulgar game nurse said so although alex had been the most enthusiastic of them all when emily had first taught her the game she had at once begun to think it vulgar when nurse condemned it she would have nothing more to do with consequences it was quite likely that in a few days barbara would get into one of her priggish perverse moods and in a fit of temper with cedric go and tell nurse that he was still indulging in the forbidden pastime alex thought she might as well be out of it she was in trouble often enough in the nursery nurse always took barbara's part against her and accused her of being violent and overbearing and then lady isabel the children's mother would send for her to her room while she dressed for dinner and say complainingly alex why do you quarrel so with the others i shall send you to school if you can't be happy with barbara at home oh don't send me to school mummy not if you're good i will be good really i will very well my child now ring for hawkins or i shall be late

may i stay and watch you put on your diamond things mummy do let me and lady isabel always laughed and let her stay so that alex eventually went back to the nursery with an elated sense of having been very good and accorded privileges which never fell to the lot of self-righteous barbara she knew she was her mother's favourite because she was the eldest and was often sent for to the drawing-room when there were people there barbara of course was too ugly to go much to the drawing-room alex would toss her own mane of silky brown curls and draw herself up conceitedly as she thought of barbara's pale face and thin attenuated ringlets besides lady isabel had said that barbara really mustn't come down again when people were there until her second teeth had put in their tardy appearance even cedric though acclaimed as quaint and solemn by his mother's friends was too apt to make disconcerting comments on their sparkling conversation and would return to the nursery in disgrace alex's only rival for downstairs favour was little archie who was only four and at present a very pretty little boy but he was too small for alex ever to feel jealous of him the new baby christened with pomp in the big catholic church at the end of the square pamela isabel was so far a negligible quantity in the nursery world

she slept in the little room called the inner nursery most of the day and was only with the others when they were taken into the park or to play in the square garden then emily pushed the big pran that contained the slumbering pamela and nurse grasped the hands of barbara and archie and dragged them over the crossings cedric by nurse's express orders always walked just in front of her with alex and unwillingly submitted to having his hand held by his sister not that i trust alex for common sense nurse was careful to explain not a yard but so long as they're together i can keep an eye on both and see they don't get under no ansem's feet that boy's spectacles are too downright uncanny for me to let him cross the road alone for cedric was obliged to wear a large pair of round spectacles without which he could only see things that were very close to his eyes he even had another different pair for reading which seemed to alex an exaggerated precaution likely to increase cedric's sense of his own importance well said cedric you have a plate and i haven't alex's plate was an instrument of torture designed to push back two prominent front teeth it not only hurt her and kept her awake at night but was very disfiguring besides and she passionately envied barbara who at nine years old still had only gaps where her front teeth should have been

of course alex would sometimes declare grandly repeating what she had heard lady isabel say barbara is dreadfully backward she's such a baby for her age i'm very old for my age but she only said this in the drawing-room where it would provoke kindly laughter or perhaps interested comment in the nursery nurse never suffered any airs and graces as she called them and would pounce on alex and shake her at the least hint of any such nonsense just you wait till you are sent to a good strict school my lady and see what you'll get then she told her threateningly i'm not going to school mummy said i shouldn't go if i was good we shall see what we shall see children as think themselves everybody at home gets whipped when they go to school nurse told her severely alex was used to these prognostications they did not alarm her very much because she did not think that she would be sent to school she knew instinctively that her father disapproved of ordinary girls schools and that her mother disliked convents and indeed most things that had to do with religion alex supposed that this was because lady isabel was a protestant she thought that it was much the nicest religion to belong to on the whole since it evidently imposed no obligations in the nature of church-going and she often wondered why her mother had let all her children be catholics instead of protestants like herself

it certainly couldn't be because father cared which church the children went to or whether they went at all the only person in the house who did seem to care was nurse who took alex and barbara and cedric to high mass at the oratory every sunday where there was a front bench reserved for them with little cards in brass frames planted at intervals along the ledge in front of them bearing the name of sir francis clare nurse put barbara on one side of her and alex on the other and cedric on the outside and was very particular about their kneeling down and standing up at the right moment and keeping the prayer-books open in front of them alex and barbara each had a garden of the soul but cedric was only allowed holy childhood which had pictures and anecdotes illustrative of vice and virtue at the end alex knew all the anecdotes by heart and preferred her own grown-up looking book with its small close print she had long since discovered that the one matter over which nurse could be hoodwinked was print and that she might quite safely indulge herself in the perusal of the pages devoted to the sacrament of holy matrimony or to a mysterious ceremony called churching after childbirth during the many dull portions of the long service the only part of church that held possibilities was when the little bell rang at the elevation and every one bent his or her head as far down as it would go over the bench alex always looked up surreptitiously then to see if by any chance a miracle was taking place

or to watch cedric's invariable manoeuvre of hanging on to the ledge by his teeth and hands and trying to raise his feet from the floor at the same time nurse was always piously bent double her face hidden in her cotton gloves breathing stertorously with barbara on the other side devotedly imitating her even to the production of strange sounds through her own tightly compressed lips after that alex always knew that the end of church was near and that as soon as the priest had taken up his little square head-gear and faced the congregation for the last time nurse would begin to poke her violently as a sign that she was to get up and to make cedric pick up his cap and gloves then came the genuflection as they filed out between the benches and nurse was always very particular that this should be done properly frequently pressing a heavy hand on alex's shoulder until her knee bumped painfully against the stone floor the final ceremony connected with the children's religion took place at the door when cedric had to make his way through rustling skirts and an occasional pair of black trousers to the big stone basin of holy water

into this standing on tiptoe with immense difficulty he plunged as much of his hand as was necessary to satisfy the sharp inspection of nurse when he returned proffering dripping fingers to her and to his sisters the last perfunctory sign of the cross made then the worst of sunday in alex's opinion was over roast beef and yorkshire pudding for dinner was pleasant mademoiselle did not come in the afternoon and nurse generally went out and left emily in charge in the summer she took the children to sit in the square garden the park on sundays was not allowed and in the winter they always walked as far as the albert memorial for which cedric entertained a great admiration sunday was lady isabel's at-home day and the children except during the season always went down to the drawing-room after tea alex and barbara in pale rose-coloured frocks with innumerable frills at throat and wrists and a small pad fastened under each skirt so that it might stand well out at the back cedric like most other little boys of his age and standing was forced to wear a lord fauntleroy suit from which his cropped bullet head and spectacles emerged incongruously the half-hour in the drawing-room was not enjoyed by the others as it was by alex especially if there were many visitors

she would lean against lady isabel confidently and hear people say how like she was to her mother which always delighted her her mother looked so pretty sitting on the sofa with her fringe beautifully curled and a lovely dress that was half a tea-gown the tight bodice coming down into a sharp point in front and behind and the skirt falling into long folds with the train sweeping the ground and huge loops and bows of soft ribbon draping at crosswise barbara was incurably shy and poked her head when she was spoken to but very few people took as much notice of her as of talkative alex or pretty little archie who was all blue ribbons and fearless smiles and before very long lady isabel was sure to say now you'd better run back to the nursery hadn't you darlings or nurse will be coming down in search of you i've got the most invaluable old dragon for them she generally added to her friends she's been with us since alex was a baby and rules the whole house oh don't send them away one of the visiting ladies would exclaim politely such darlings oh but i must their father won't hear of my spoiling them now run along infants cedric and barbara were only too ready to obey though it was understood that lady isabel's run along only meant a very ceremonious departure from the room

barbara taking little archie by the hand and leading him to the door where they both dropped the obeisance considered picturesque and cedric making an unwilling progress to execute his carefully practised bow before each one of the ladies scattered about the big room if alex however was enjoying herself and getting the notice that her soul loved she always said in a pleading whisper loud enough to be heard by two or three people beside her mother oh do let me stay with you a little longer mummy don't send me upstairs yet how sweet do let her stay dear lady isabel you mustn't encourage me to spoil her she ought to go up with the others just for this once mummy well just for this once perhaps after all said lady isabel apologetically she is the eldest she'll be coming out before i know where i am and alex would enjoy the privilege of being the eldest and sit beside her mother listening to the conversation and sometimes joining in with remarks that she thought might be acclaimed as amusing or original or even merely precocious no wonder that the nursery greeted her return with disdain even emily called her drawing-room child and by her contempt brought alex's ready tears of mortified vanity to the surface

but it was much worse on the rare sunday afternoons when nurse was in when she would greatly resent the slight de barbara if she was sent up from the drawing-room before her sister working on your mamma to spoil you like that just because you are a couple of years older nurse would say pulling the comb fiercely through alex's hair as she went to bed i'm three whole years older don't you contradict me like that alex i'm not going to have any showing off up here i can tell you you can keep those airs and graces for your mamma's friends in the drawing-room alex generally went to bed in tears if nurse had not been scolding her then barbara had been quarrelling with her they always quarrelled whenever barbara ventured to differ from alex and take up an attitude of her own or still more when barbara and cedric made an alliance together and excluded alex's autocratic ruling of their games but it's for your good she would tell them passionately i want to show you a better way it'll be much more fun if you do it my way you'll see but they did not want to see their obstinacy always brought to alex the same sense of incredulous resentful fury how could they not want to be shown the best way of doing things when she knew it and they didn't and of course she always did know it was she not the eldest

it was not till alex was almost thirteen that her belief in her own infallibility as eldest received a rude shock she nearly killed barbara it was the first week of august and sir francis and lady isabel had gone to scotland the children were going to the sea with nurse on the following day and took advantage of her state of excitement over the packing and the emptiness of the downstairs rooms to play at circus on the stairs emily only said now don't go hurting yourself whatever you do or there'll be no seaside to-morrow and then went back to amuse pamela who was crying and restless from the heat i'll tell you what said alex we'll have tight-rope dancing i'm tired of learned pigs and things like that this last impersonation having been perseveringly rendered by cedric with much shuffling and snorting over a pack of cards give me the skipping-rope barbara why said barbara whining because i say so replied her sister stamping her foot i've got an idea it's my skipping-robe but if you don't give it to me we can't have the tight-rope dancing said alex in despair i don't care why should you do tight-rope dancing with my skipping-robe

you shall do it first you shall do it all yourself if you will only let me show you alex cried in an agony of impatience on this inducement barbara slowly parted with her skipping-robe and let alex knot it hastily and insecurely to the newel post on the first landing above the hall now just get up on the post barbara and i'll hold the other end of the rope like this and you'll see-but i can't i should fall off don't be such a little muff i'll hold you on no no i'm frightened let cedric do it no said cedric i'm being a learned pig he went down the short flight of stairs and sat firmly down upon the tiled floor with the pack of cards outspread before him now come on barbara alex commanded i'll hold you between hoisting and pulling and barbara's own dread of disobeying her alex got her sister into a kneeling position on the broad flat top of the newel post now stand up and then i'll hold out the rope you'll be the famous tight-rope dancer crossing the falls of niagara alex i'm frightened what of silly if you did fall it's only a little way on to the stairs and i'll catch you besides you'll feel much safer when you're standing up barbara facing the stairs and with her back to the alarming void between her perch and the hall floor rose trembling to her feet

you look splendid said alex now then she jerked at the rope and at the same instant barbara screamed and tried to clutch at her alex caught hold of her sister's ankles felt barbara's weight slip suddenly and screamed aloud as a shriek and crash that seemed simultaneous proclaimed barbara's fall backwards into the hall cedric and barbara in a confused struggling heap on the floor doors opening upstairs and in the basement the flying feet of the servants all was an agonized nightmare to alex until barbara limp and inert on nurse's lap suddenly began to scream and cry calling out my back my back they hushed her at last and nurse carried her into the boudoir which was the nearest room and laid her down on the broad sofa then alex became aware of a monotonous sound that had struck on her ear without penetrating to her senses ever since the accident happened my spectacles are broken you've broken my spectacles reiterated a lamentable voice you horrid heartless little boy cedric when poor barbara sobs choked her i like that said cedric when it was all you that made her fall at all and break my spectacles

what's that said nurse miraculously reappearing or you was it i might have known it you mischievous wicked child tell me what happened this minute but alex was screaming and writhing on the floor feeling as though she must die of such misery and it was cedric who gave the assembled household a judicial version of the accident the doctor came and telegrams were sent to scotland which brought back lady isabel white-faced and tearful and sir francis very stern and monosyllabic father my spectacles are broken cried cedric earnestly running to meet them but they did not seem to hear him where is she nurse asked lady isabel in the boudoir my lady and better thank heaven the doctor says her back'll get right again in time alex hanging shaking over the balustrade saw that nurse was making faces as though she were crying but when she came upstairs after a long time spent with lady isabel in the boudoir and saw alex her face was quite hard again and she gave her a push and said it's no use crying those crocodile tears now you should have thought of that before trying to kill barbara the way you did i didn't i didn't sobbed alex but nobody paid any attention to her good-natured emily was sent away because nurse said she wasn't fit to be trusted and cook who is emily's aunt and very angry about it all told alex that it was all her fault if poor emily never got another place at all

everything was alex's fault there was no going to the seaside even after barbara was pronounced better but lady isabel who nurse said had been given a dreadful shock by alex's wickedness was going into the country and would take archie and the baby with her if they could get a new nursery-maid at once and me and cedric asked alex trembling cedric doesn't give me no trouble as you very well know and he'll stay here and help me amuse poor little barbara who has always got on with him so nicely shall i stay and play with barbara too she's a long way from playing yet nurse returned grimly and i should think the sight of you would throw her into a fit after what's passed but what will happen to me nurse sobbed alex your papa will talk to you said nurse such a thing had never happened to any of the children before but alex trembling and sick from crying found herself confronting sir francis in the dining-room "'I am going to send you to school, Alex,' he told her.

"'How old are you?' "'Twelve.' "'Then I hope,' said Sir Francis gravely, "'that you are old enough to understand what a terrible thing it is "'to be sent from home in disgrace for such a reason.

"'I am told that you have the deplorable reputation "'of originating quarrels with your brothers and sister, "'who but for you would lead the normal existence "'of happily circumstanced children.' Alex was terrified.

she could not answer these terrible imputations and began to cry convulsively i see said sir francis that you are sensible of the appalling lengths to which this tendency has led you even now i can scarcely believe it a harmless gentle child like your little sister who i am assured has never done you willful injury in her life that you should deliberately endanger her life and her reason in such a fashion. He paused as though he were waiting for Alex to speak, but she could not say anything.

If your repentance is sincere, as I willingly assume it to be, your future behaviour must be such as to lead us all, particularly your poor little sister, to forget this terrible beginning. Will Barbara get well? By the great mercy of heaven, and owing to her extreme youth, we are assured by the doctor that a year or two will entirely correct the injury to the spine. had it been otherwise alex sir francis looked at his daughter in silence when thanking heaven for the mercy which has preserved your sister's life he said gently i hope you will reflect seriously upon redeeming this action by your future conduct

"'Oh, I'm sorry! Oh, shall you ever forgive me?' gasped Alex amongst her sobs. "'I do forgive you, my child, as does your mother, and as I am convinced that little Barbara will do. "'But I cannot, nor would I if I could, avert from you the consequence of your own act,' said her father. Barbara did forgive Alex in a little plaintive superior voice, as she lay very white and straight in bed. She was to stay quite flat on her back for at least a year, the doctor said, and she need do no lessons,

and later she would be taken out in a long, flat carriage that could be pushed from behind. Then she would be able to walk again, and her back would be quite straight. If she'd been a hunchback, we might have played circus again, and I could have been the learned pig, said Cedric reflectively. Alex went to school at the end of September. And that was her first practical experience of the game of consequences, as played by the freakish hand of fate.

End of chapter one.