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Title: The Well of Loneliness (1928) Author: Radclyff Hall * A Project Gutenberg of Australia eBook * eBook No.: 0609021.txt Language: English Date first posted: November 2006 Date most recently updated: November 2006 Project Gutenberg of Australia eBooks are created from printed editions which are in the public domain in Australia, unless a copyright notice is included. We do NOT keep any eBooks in compliance with a particular paper edition. Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing this file. This eBook is made available at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg of Australia License which may be viewed online at http://gutenberg.net.au/licence.html To contact Project Gutenberg of Australia go to http://gutenberg.net.au -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Title: The Well of Loneliness (1928) Author: Radclyff Hall To Our Three Selves AUTHOR'S NOTE All the characters in this book are purely imaginary, and if the author has used names that may suggest a reference to living persons, she has done so inadvertently. A motor ambulance unit of British women drivers did very fine service upon the Allied Front in France during the later months of the war, but although the unit mentioned in this book, of which Stephen Gordon becomes a member, operates in much the same area, it has never had any existence save in the author's imagination. BOOK ONE Chapter One 1 Not very far from Up ton-on-Severn--between it, in fact, and the Malvern Hills--stands the country seat of the Gordons of Bramley; well-timbered, well-cottaged, well-fenced and well-watered, having, in this latter respect, a stream that forks in exactly the right position to feed two large lakes in the grounds. The house itself is of Georgian red brick, with charming circular windows near the roof. It has dignity and pride without ostentation, self-assurance without arrogance, repose without inertia; and a gentle aloofness that, to those who know its spirit, but adds to its value as a home. It is indeed like certain lovely women who, now old, belong to a bygone generation--women who in youth were passionate but seemly; difficult to win but when won, all-fulfilling. They are passing away, but their homesteads remain, and such an homestead is Morton. To Morton Hall came the Lady Anna Gordon as a bride of just over twenty. She was lovely as only an Irish woman can be, having that in her bearing that betokened quiet pride, having that in her eyes that betokened great longing, having that in her body that betokened happy promise--the archetype of the very perfect woman, whom creating God has found good. Sir Philip had met her away in County Clare--Anna Molloy, the slim virgin thing, all chastity, and his weariness had flown to her bosom as a spent bird will fly to its nest--as indeed such a bird had once flown to her, she told him, taking refuge from the perils of a storm. Sir Philip was a tall man and exceedingly well-favoured, but his charm lay less in feature than in a certain wide expression, a tolerant expression that might almost be called noble, and in something sad yet gallant in his deep-set hazel eyes. His chin, which was firm, was very slightly cleft, his forehead intellectual, his hair tinged with auburn. His wide-nostrilled nose was indicative of temper, but his lips were well-modelled and sensitive and ardent--they revealed him as a dreamer and a lover. Twenty-nine when they had married, he had sown no few wild oats, yet Anna's true instinct made her trust him completely: Her guardian had disliked him, opposing the engagement, but in the end she had had her own way. And as things turned out her choice had been happy, for seldom had two people loved more than they did; they loved with an ardour undiminished by time; as they ripened, so their love ripened with them. Sir Philip never knew how much he longed for a son until, some ten years after marriage, his wife conceived a child; then he knew that this thing meant complete fulfilment, the fulfilment for which they had both been waiting. When she told him, he could not find words for expression, and must just turn and weep on her shoulder. It never seemed to cross his mind for a moment that Anna might very well give him a daughter; he saw her only as a mother of sons, nor could her warnings disturb him. He christened the unborn infant Stephen, because he admired the pluck of that Saint. He was not a religious man by instinct, being perhaps too much of a student, but he read the Bible for its fine literature, and Stephen had gripped his imagination. Thus he often discussed the future of their child: 'I think I shall put Stephen down for Harrow', or: 'I'd rather like Stephen to finish off abroad, it widens one's outlook on life'. And listening to him, Anna also grew convinced; his certainty wore down her vague misgivings, and she saw herself playing with this little Stephen, in the nursery, in the garden, in the sweet-smelling meadows. 'And himself the lovely young man,' she would say, thinking of the soft Irish speech of her peasants; 'And himself with the light of the stars in his eyes, and the courage of a lion in his heart!' When the child stirred within her she would think it stirred strongly because of the gallant male creature she was hiding; then her spirit grew large with a mighty new courage, because a man-child would be born. She would sit with her needle-work dropped on her knees, while her eyes turned away to the long line of hills that stretched beyond the Severn valley. From her favourite seat underneath an old cedar, she would see these Malvern Hills in their beauty, and their swelling slopes seemed to hold a new meaning. They were like pregnant women, full-bosomed, courageous, great green-girdled mothers of splendid sons! thus through all those summer months she sat and watched the hills, and Sir Philip would sit with her--they would sit hand in hand. And because she felt grateful she gave much to the poor, and Sir Philip went to church, which was seldom his custom, and the Vicar came to dinner, and just towards the end many matrons called to give good advice to Anna. But: 'Man proposes--God disposes', and so it happened that on Christmas Eve, Anna Gordon was delivered of a daughter; a narrow-hipped, wide-shouldered little tadpole of a baby, that yelled and yelled for three hours without ceasing, as though outraged to find itself ejected into life. 2 Anna Gordon held her child to her breast, but she grieved while it drank, because of her man who had longed so much for a son. And seeing her grief, Sir Philip hid his chagrin, and he fondled the baby and examined its fingers. 'What a hand!' he would say. 'Why it's actually got nails on all its ten fingers: little, perfect, pink nails!' Then Anna would dry her eyes and caress it, kissing the tiny hand. He insisted on calling the infant Stephen, nay more, he would have it baptized by that name. 'We've called her Stephen so long,' he told Anna, 'that I really can't see why we shouldn't go on--' Anna felt doubtful, but Sir Philip was stubborn, as he could be at times over whims. The Vicar said that it was rather unusual, so to mollify him they must add female names. The child was baptized in the village church as Stephen Mary Olivia Gertrude--and she throve, seeming strong, and when her hair grew it was seen to be auburn like Sir Philip's. There was also a tiny cleft in her chin, so small just at first that it looked like a shadow; and after a while when her eyes lost the blueness that is proper to puppies and other young things, Anna saw that her eyes were going to be hazel--and thought that their expression was her father's. On the whole she was quite a well-behaved baby, owing, no doubt, to a fine constitution. Beyond that first energetic protest at birth she had done very little howling. It was happy to have a baby at Morton, and the old house seemed to become more mellow as the child, growing fast now and learning to walk, staggered or stumbled or sprawled on the floors that had long known the ways of children. Sir Philip would come home all muddy from hunting and would rush into the nursery before pulling off his boots, then down he would go on his hands and knees while Stephen clambered on to his back. Sir Philip would pretend to be well corned up, bucking and jumping and kicking wildly, so that Stephen must cling to his hair or his collar, and thump him with hard little arrogant fists. Anna, attracted by the outlandish hubbub, would find them, and would point to the mud on the carpet. She would say: 'Now, Philip, now, Stephen, that's enough! It's time for your tea', as though both of them were children. Then Sir Philip would reach up and disentangle Stephen, after which he would kiss Stephen's mother. 3 The son that they waited for seemed long a-coming; he had not arrived when Stephen was seven. Nor had Anna produced other female offspring. thus Stephen remained cock of the roost. It is doubtful if any only child is to be envied, for the only child is bound to become introspective; having no one of its own ilk in whom to confide, it is apt to confide in itself. It cannot be said that at seven years old the mind is beset by serious problems, but nevertheless it is already groping, may already be subject to small fits of dejection, may already be struggling to get a grip on life--on the limited life of its surroundings. At seven there are miniature loves and hatreds, which, however, loom large and are extremely disconcerting. There may even be present a dim sense of frustration, and Stephen was often conscious of this sense, though she could not have put it into words. To cope with it, however, she would give way at times to sudden fits of hot temper, working herself up over everyday trifles that usually left her cold. It relieved her to stamp and then burst into tears at the first sign of opposition. After such outbursts she would feel much more cheerful, would find it almost easy to be docile and obedient. In some vague, childish way she had hit back at life, and this fact had restored her self-respect. Anna would send for her turbulent offspring and would say: 'Stephen darling, Mother's not really cross--tell Mother what makes you give way to these tempers; she'll promise to try and understand if you'll tell her--' But her eyes would look cold, though her voice might be gentle, and her hand when it fondled would be tentative, unwilling. The hand would be making an effort to fondle, and Stephen would be conscious of that effort. Then looking up at the calm, lovely face, Stephen would be filled with a sudden contrition, with a sudden deep sense of her own shortcomings; she would long to blurt all this out to her mother, yet would stand there tongue-tied, saying nothing at all. For these two were strangely shy with each other--it was almost grotesque, this shyness of theirs, as existing between mother and child. Anna would feel it, and through her Stephen, young as she was, would become conscious of it; so that they held a little aloof when they should have been drawing together. Stephen, acutely responsive to beauty, would be dimly longing to find expression for a feeling almost amounting to worship, that her mother's face had awakened. But Anna, looking gravely at her daughter, noting the plentiful auburn hair, the brave hazel eyes that were so like her father's, as indeed were the child's whole expression and bearing, would be filled with a sudden antagonism that came very near to anger. She would awake at night and ponder this thing, scourging herself in an access of contrition; accusing herself of hardness of spirit, of being an unnatural mother. Sometimes she would shed slow, miserable tears, remembering the inarticulate Stephen. She would think: I ought to be proud of the likeness, proud and happy and glad when I sec it! then back would come flooding that queer antagonism that amounted almost to anger. It would seem to Anna that she must be going mad, for this likeness to her husband would strike her as an outrage--as though the poor, innocent seven-year-old Stephen were in some way a caricature of Sir Philip; a blemished, unworthy, maimed reproduction--yet she knew that the child was handsome. But now there were times when the child's soft flesh would be almost distasteful to her; when she hated the way Stephen moved or stood still, hated a certain largeness about her, a certain crude lack of grace in her movements, a certain unconscious defiance. Then the mother's mind would slip back to the days when this creature had clung to her breast, forcing her to love it by its own utter weakness; and at this thought her eyes must fill again, for she came of a race of devoted mothers. The thing had crept on her like a foe in the dark--it had been slow, insidious, deadly, it had waxed strong as Stephen herself had waxed strong, being part, in some way, of Stephen. Restlessly tossing from side to side, Anna Gordon would pray for enlightenment and guidance; would pray that her husband might never suspect her feelings towards his child. All that she was and had been he knew; in all the world she had no other secret save this one most unnatural and monstrous injustice that was stronger than her will to destroy it. And Sir Philip loved Stephen, he idolized her; it was almost as though he divined by instinct that his daughter was being secretly defrauded, was bearing some unmerited burden. He never spoke to his wife of these things, yet watching them together, she grew daily more certain that his love for the child held an element in it that was closely akin to pity. Chapter Two 1 At about this time Stephen first became conscious of an urgent necessity to love. She adored her father, but that was quite different; he was part of herself, he had always been there, she could not envisage the world without him--it was other with Collins, the housemaid. Collins was what was called 'second of three'; she might one day hope for promotion. Meanwhile she was florid, full-lipped and full-bosomed, rather ample indeed for a young girl of twenty, but her eyes were unusually blue and arresting, very pretty inquisitive eyes. Stephen had seen Collins sweeping the stairs for two years, and had passed her by quite unnoticed; but one morning, when Stephen was just over seven, Collins looked up and suddenly smiled, then all in a moment Stephen knew that she loved her--a staggering revelation! Collins said politely: 'Good morning, Miss Stephen.' She had always said: 'Good morning, Miss Stephen,' but on this occasion it sounded alluring--so alluring that Stephen wanted to touch her, and extending a rather uncertain hand she started to stroke her sleeve. Collins picked up the hand and stared at it. 'Oh, my!' she exclaimed, 'what very dirty nails!' Whereupon their owner flushed painfully crimson and dashed upstairs to repair them. 'Put them scissors down this minute, Miss Stephen!' came the nurse's peremptory voice, while her charge was still busily engaged on her toilet. But Stephen said firmly: 'I'm cleaning my nails 'cause Collins doesn't like them--she says they're dirty!' 'What impudence!' snapped the nurse, thoroughly annoyed. 'I'll thank her to mind her own business!' Having finally secured the large cutting-out scissors, Mrs. Bingham went forth in search of the offender; she was not one to tolerate any interference with the dignity of her status. She found Collins still on the top flight of stairs, and forthwith she started to upbraid her: 'putting her back in her place,' the nurse called it; and she did it so thoroughly that in less than five minutes 'the second-of-three' had been told of every fault that was likely to preclude promotion. Stephen stood still in the nursery doorway. She could feel her heart thumping against her side, thumping with anger and pity for Collins who was answering never a word. There she knelt mute, with her brush suspended, with her mouth slightly open and her eyes rather scared; and when at long last she did manage to speak, her voice sounded humble and frightened. She was timid by nature, and the nurse's sharp tongue was a byword throughout the household. Collins was saying: 'Interfere with your child? Oh, no, Mrs. Bingham, never! I hope I knows my place better than that--Miss Stephen herself showed me them dirty nails; she said: "Collins, just look, aren't my nails awful dirty!" And I said: "You must ask Nanny about that, Miss Stephen." Is it likely that I'd interfere with your work? I'm not that sort, Mrs. Bingham.' Oh, Collins, Collins, with those pretty blue eyes and that funny alluring smile! Stephen's own eyes grew wide with amazement, then they clouded with sudden and disillusioned tears, for far worse than Collins' poorness of spirit was the dreadful injustice of those lies--yet this very injustice seemed to draw her to Collins, since despising, she could still love her. For the rest of that day Stephen brooded darkly over Collins' unworthiness; and yet all through that day she still wanted Collins, and whenever she saw her she caught herself smiling, quite unable, in her turn, to muster the courage to frown her innate disapproval. And Collins smiled too, if the nurse was not looking, and she held up her plump red fingers, pointing to her nails and making a grimace at the nurse's retreating figure. Watching her, Stephen felt unhappy and embarrassed, not so much for herself as for Collins; and this feeling increased, so that thinking about her made Stephen go hot down her spine. In the evening, when Collins was laying the tea, Stephen managed to get her alone. 'Collins,' she whispered, 'you told an untruth--I never showed you my dirty nails!' 'Course not!' murmured Collins, 'but I had to say something--you didn't mind, Miss Stephen, did you?' And as Stephen looked doubtfully up into her face, Collins suddenly stooped and kissed her. Stephen stood speechless from a sheer sense of joy, all her doubts swept completely away. At that moment she knew nothing but beauty and Collins, and the two were as one, and the one was Stephen--and yet not Stephen either, but something more vast, that the mind of seven years found no name for. The nurse came in grumbling: 'Now then, hurry up, Miss Stephen! Don't stand there as though you were daft! Go and wash your face and hands before tea--how many times must I tell you the same thing?' 'I don't know--' muttered Stephen. And indeed she did not; she knew nothing of such trifles at that moment. 2 From now on Stephen entered a completely new world, that turned on an axis of Collins. A world full of constant exciting adventures; of elation, of joy, of incredible sadness, but withal a fine place to be dashing about in like a moth who is courting a candle. Up and down went the days; they resembled a swing that soared high above the tree-tops, then dropped to the depths, but seldom if ever hung midway. And with them went Stephen, clinging to the swing, waking up in the mornings with a thrill of vague excitement--the sort of excitement that belonged by rights to birthdays, and Christmas, and a visit to the pantomime at Malvern. She would open her eyes and jump out of bed quickly, still too sleepy to remember why she felt so elated; but then would come memory--she would know that this day she was actually going to sec Collins. The thought would set her splashing in her sitz-bath, and tearing the buttons off her clothes in her haste, and cleaning her nails with such ruthlessness and vigour that she made them quite sore in the process. She began to be very inattentive at her lessons, sucking her pencil, staring out of the window, or what was far worse, not listening at all, except for Collins' footsteps. The nurse slapped her hands, and stood her in the corner, and deprived her of jam, but all to no purpose; for Stephen would smile, hugging closer her secret--it was worth being punished for Collins. She grew restless and could not be induced to sit still even when her nurse read aloud. At one time she had very much liked being read to, especially from books that were all about heroes, but now such stories so stirred her ambition that she longed intensely to live them. She, Stephen, now longed to be William tell, or Nelson, or the whole Charge of Balaclava; and this led to much foraging in the nursery ragbag, much hunting up of garments once used for charades, much swagger and noise, much strutting and posing, and much staring into the mirror. There ensued a period of general confusion when the nursery looked as though smitten by an earthquake; when the chairs and the floor would be littered with oddments that Stephen had dug out but discarded. Once dressed, she would walk away grandly, waving the nurse peremptorily aside, going, as always, in search of Collins, who might have to be stalked to the basement. Sometimes Collins would play up, especially to Nelson. 'My, but you do look fine!' she would exclaim. And then to the cook: 'Do come here, Mrs. Wilson! Doesn't Miss Stephen look exactly like a boy? I believe she must be a boy with them shoulders, and them funny gawky legs she's got on her!' And Stephen would say gravely: 'Yes, of course I'm a boy. I'm young Nelson, and I'm saying: "What is fear?" you know, Collins--I must be a boy, 'cause I feel exactly like one, I feel like young Nelson in the picture upstairs.' Collins would laugh and so would Mrs. Wilson, and after Stephen had gone they would get talking, and Collins might say: 'She is a queer kid, always dressing herself up and play-acting--it's funny.' But Mrs. Wilson might show disapproval: 'I don't hold with such nonsense, not for a young lady. Miss Stephen's quite different from other young ladies--she's got none of their pretty little ways--it's a pity!' There were times, however, when Collins seemed sulky, when Stephen could dress up as Nelson in vain. 'Now, don't bother me, Miss, I've got my work to see to!' or: 'You go and show Nurse--yes, I know you're a boy, but I've got my work to get on with. Run away.' And Stephen must slink upstairs thoroughly deflated, strangely unhappy and exceedingly humble, and must tear off the clothes she so dearly loved donning, to replace them by the garments she hated. How she hated soft dresses and sashes, and ribbons, and small coral beads, and openwork stockings! Her legs felt so free and comfortable in breeches; she adored pockets, too, and these were forbidden--at least really adequate pockets. She would gloom about the nursery because Collins had snubbed her, because she was conscious of feeling all wrong, because she so longed to be someone quite real, instead of just Stephen pretending to be Nelson. In a quick fit of anger she would go to the cupboard, and getting out her dolls would begin to torment them. She had always despised the idiotic creatures which, however, arrived with each Christmas and birthday. 'I hate you! I hate you! I hate you!' she would mutter, thumping their innocuous faces. But one day, when Collins had been crosser than usual, she seemed to be filled with a sudden contrition. 'It's me housemaid's knee,' she confided to Stephen. 'It's not you, it's me, housemaid's knee, dearie.' 'Is that dangerous?' demanded the child, looking frightened. Then Collins, true to her class, said: 'It may be--it may mean an 'orrible operation, and I don't want no operation.' 'What's that?' inquired Stephen. 'Why, they'd cut me,' moaned Collins; 'they'd 'ave to cut me to let out the water.' 'Oh, Collins! What water?' 'The water in me kneecap--you can see if you press it, Miss Stephen.' They were standing alone in the spacious night-nursery, where Collins was limply making the bed. It was one of those rare and delicious occasions when Stephen could converse with her goddess undisturbed, for the nurse had gone out to post a letter. Collins rolled down a coarse woollen stocking and displayed the afflicted member; it was blotchy and swollen and far from attractive, but Stephen's eyes filled with quick, anxious tears as she touched the knee with her finger. 'There now!' exclaimed Collins. 'See that dent? That's the water!' And she added: 'It's so painful it fair makes me sick. It all comes from polishing them floors, Miss Stephen; I didn't ought to polish them floors.' Stephen said gravely: 'I do wish I'd got it--I wish I'd got your housemaid's knee, Collins, 'cause that way I could bear it instead of you. I'd like to be awfully hurt for you, Collins, the way Jesus was hurt for sinners. Suppose I pray hard, don't you think I might catch it? Or supposing I rub my knee against yours?' 'Lord bless you!' laughed Collins, 'it's not like the measles; no, Miss Stephen, it's caught from them floors.' That evening Stephen became rather pensive, and she turned to the Child's Book of Scripture Stories and she studied the picture of the Lord on His Cross, and she felt that she understood Him. She had often been rather puzzled about Him, since she herself was fearful of pain--when she barked her shins on the gravel in the garden, it was not always easy to keep back her tears--and yet Jesus had chosen to bear pain for sinners, when He might have called up all those angels! Oh, yes, she had wondered a great deal about Him, but now she no longer wondered. At bedtime, when her mother came to hear her say her prayers--as custom demanded--Stephen's prayers lacked conviction. But when Anna kissed her and had turned out the light, then it was that Stephen prayed in good earnest--with such fervour, indeed, that she dripped perspiration in a veritable orgy of prayer. 'Please, Jesus, give me a housemaid's knee instead of Collins--do, do, Lord Jesus. Please Jesus, I would like to bear all Collins' pain the way You did, and I don't want any angels! I would like to wash Collins in my blood, Lord Jesus--I would like very much to be a Saviour to Collins--I love her, and I want to be hurt like You were; please, dear Lord Jesus, do let me. Please give me a knee that's all full of water, so that I can have Collins' operation. I want to have it instead of her, 'cause she's frightened--I'm not a bit frightened!' This petition she repeated until she fell asleep, to dream that in some queer way she was Jesus, and that Collins was kneeling and kissing her hand, because she, Stephen, had managed to cure her by cutting off her knee with a bone paper-knife and grafting it on to her own. The dream was a mixture of rapture and discomfort, and it stayed quite a long time with Stephen. The next morning she awoke with the feeling of elation that comes only in moments of perfect faith. But a close examination of her knees in the bath revealed them to be flawless except for old scars and a crisp, brown scab from a recent tumble--this, of course, was very disappointing. She picked off the scab, and that hurt her a little, but not, she felt sure, like a real housemaid's knee. However, she decided to continue in prayer, and not to be too easily downhearted. For more than three weeks she sweated and prayed, and pestered poor Collins with endless daily questions: 'Is your knee better yet?' 'Don't you think my knee's swollen?' 'Have you faith? 'Cause I have--' 'Does it hurt you less, Collins?' But Collins would always reply in the same way: 'It's no better, thank you, Miss Stephen.' At the end of the fourth week, Stephen suddenly stopped praying, and she said to Our Lord: 'You don't love Collins, Jesus, but I do, and I'm going to get housemaid's knee. You see if I don't!' Then she felt rather frightened, and added more humbly: 'I mean, I do want to--You don't mind, do You, Lord Jesus?' The nursery floor was covered with carpet, which was obviously rather unfortunate for Stephen; had it only been parquet like the drawing-room and study, she felt it would better have served her purpose. All the same it was hard if she knelt long enough--it was so hard, indeed, that she had to grit her teeth if she stayed on her knees for more than twenty minutes. This was much worse than barking one's shins in the garden; it was much worse even than picking off a scab! Nelson helped her a little. She would think: 'Now I'm Nelson. I'm in the middle of thee Battle of Trafalgar--I've got shots in my knees.' But then she would remember that Nelson had been spared such torment. However, it was really rather fine to be suffering--it certainly seemed to bring Collins much nearer; it seemed to make Stephen feel that she owned her by right of this diligent pain. There were endless spots on the old nursery carpet, and these spots Stephen could pretend to be cleaning; always careful to copy. Collins' movements, rubbing backwards and forwards while groaning a little. When she got up at last, she must hold her left leg and limp, still groaning a little. Enormous new holes appeared in her stockings, through which she could examine her aching knees, and this led to rebuke: 'Stop your nonsense, Miss Stephen! It's scandalous the way you're tearing your stockings!' But Stephen smiled grimly and went on with the nonsense, spurred by love to an open defiance. On the eighth day, however, it dawned upon Stephen that Collins should be shown the proof of her devotion. Her knees were particularly scarified that morning, so she limped off in search of the unsuspecting housemaid. Collins stared: 'Good gracious, whatever's the matter? Whatever have you been doing, Miss Stephen?' Then Stephen said, not without pardonable pride: 'I've been getting a housemaid's knee, like you, Collins!' And as Collins looked stupid and rather bewildered--'You see, I wanted to share your suffering. I've prayed quite a lot, but Jesus won't listen, so I've got to get housemaid's knee my own way--I can't wait any longer for Jesus!' 'Oh, hush!' murmured Collins, thoroughly shocked. 'You mustn't say such things: it's wicked, Miss Stephen.' But she smiled a little in spite of herself, then she suddenly hugged the child warmly. All the same, Collins plucked up her courage that evening and spoke to the nurse about Stephen. 'Her knees was all red and swollen, Mrs. Bingham. Did you ever know such a queer fish as she is? Praying about my knee, too. She's a caution! And now if she isn't trying to get one! Well, if that's not real loving then I don't know nothing.' And Collins began to laugh weakly. After this Mrs. Bingham rose in her might, and the self-imposed torture was forcibly stopped. Collins, on her part, was ordered to lie, if Stephen continued to question. So Collins lied nobly: 'It's better, Miss Stephen, it must be your praying--you see Jesus heard you. I expect He was sorry to see your poor knees--I know as I was when I saw them!' 'Are you telling me the truth?' Stephen asked her, still doubting, still mindful of that first day of Love's young dream. 'Why, of course I'm telling you the truth, Miss Stephen.' And with this Stephen had to be content. 3 Collins became more affectionate after the incident of the housemaid's knee; she could not but feel a new interest in the child whom she and the cook had now labelled as 'queer', and Stephen basked in much surreptitious petting, and her love for Collins grew daily. It was spring, the season of gentle emotions, and Stephen, for the first time, became aware of spring. In a dumb, childish way she was conscious of its fragrance, and the house irked her sorely, and she longed for the meadows, and the hills that were white with thorn-trees. Her active young body was for ever on the fidget, but her mind was bathed in a kind of soft haze, and this she could never quite put into words, though she tried to tell Collins about it. It was all part of Collins, yet somehow quite different--it had nothing to do with Collins' wide smile, nor her hands which were red, nor even her eyes which were blue, and very arresting. Yet all that was Collins, Stephen's Collins, was also a part of these long, warm days, apart of the twilights that came in and lingered for hours after Stephen had been put to bed; a part too, could Stephen have only known it, of her own quickening childish perceptions. this spring, for the first time, she thrilled to the cuckoo, standing quite still to listen, with her head on one side; and the lure of that far-away call was destined to remain with her all her life. There were times when she wanted to get away from Collins, yet at others she longed intensely to be near her, longed to force the response that her loving craved for, but quite wisely was very seldom granted. She would say: 'I do love you awfully, Collins. I love you so much that it makes me want to cry.' And Collins would answer: 'Don't be silly, Miss Stephen,' which was not satisfactory--not at all satisfactory. Then Stephen might suddenly push her, in anger: 'You're a beast! How I hate you, Collins!' And now Stephen had taken to keeping awake every night, in order to build up pictures: pictures of herself companioned by Collins in all sorts of happy situations. Perhaps they would be walking in the garden, hand in hand, or pausing on a hillside to listen to the cuckoo; or perhaps they would be skimming over miles of blue ocean in a queer little ship with a leg-of-mutton sail, like the one in the fairy story. Sometimes Stephen pictured them living alone in a low thatched cottage by the side of a mill stream--she had seen such a cottage not very far from Upton--and the water flowed quickly and made talking noises; there were sometimes dead leaves on the water. This last was a very intimate picture, full of detail, even to the red china dogs that stood one at each end of the high mantelpiece, and the grandfather clock that ticked loudly. Collins would sit by the fire with her shoes off. 'Me feet's that swollen and painful,' she would say. Then Stephen would go and cut rich bread and butter--the drawing-room kind, little bread and much butter--and would put on the kettle and brew tea for Collins, who liked it very strong and practically boiling, so that she could sip it from her saucer. In this picture it was Collins who talked about loving, and Stephen who gently but firmly rebuked her: 'There, there, Collins, don't be silly, you are a queer fish!' And yet all the while she would be longing to tell her how wonderful it was, like honeysuckle blossom--something very sweet like that--or like fields smelling strongly of new-mown hay, in the sunshine. And perhaps she would tell her, just at the very end--just before the last picture faded. 4 In these days Stephen clung more closely to her father, and this in a way was because of Collins. She could not have told you why it was so, she only felt that it was. Sir Philip and his daughter would walk on the hill-sides, in and out of the black-thorn and young green bracken; they would walk hand in hand with a deep sense of friendship, with a deep sense of mutual understanding. Sir Philip, knew all about wild flowers and berries, and the ways of young foxes and rabbits and such people. There were many rare birds, too, on the hills near Malvern, and these he would point out to Stephen. He taught her the simpler laws of nature, which, though simple, had always filled him with wonder: the law of the sap as it flowed through the branches, the law of the wind that came stirring the sap, the law of bird life and the building of nests, the law of the cuckoo's varying call, which in June changed to Cuckoo-kook!' He taught out of love for both subject and pupil, and while he thus taught he watched Stephen. Sometimes, when the child's heart would feel full past bearing, she must tell him her problems in small, stumbling phrases. Tell him how much she longed to be different, longed to be someone like Nelson. She would say: 'Do you think that I could be a man, supposing I thought very hard--or prayed, Father?' Then Sir Philip would smile and tease her a little, and would tell her that one day she would want pretty frocks, and his teasing was always excessively gentle, so that it hurt not at all. But at times he would study his daughter gravely, with his strong, cleft chin tightly cupped in his hand. He would watch her at play with the dogs in the garden, watch the curious suggestion of strength in her movements, the long line of her limbs--she was tall for her age--and the poise of her head on her over-broad shoulders. Then perhaps he would frown and become lost in thought, or perhaps he might suddenly call her: 'Stephen, come here!' She would go to him gladly, waiting expectant for what he should say; but as likely as not he would just hold her to him for a moment, and then let go of her abruptly. Getting up he would turn to the house and his study, to spend all the rest of that day with his books. A queer mixture, Sir Philip, part sportsman, part student. He had one of the finest libraries in England, and just lately he had taken to reading half the night, which had not hitherto been his custom. Alone in that grave-looking, quiet study, he would unlock a drawer in his ample desk, and would get out a slim volume recently acquired, and would read and re-read it in the silence. The author was a German, Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, and reading, Sir Philip's eyes would grow puzzled; then groping for a pencil he would make little notes all along the immaculate margins. Sometimes he would jump up and pace the room quickly, pausing now and again to stare at a picture--the portrait of Stephen painted with her mother, by Millais, the previous year. He would notice the gracious beauty of Anna, so perfect a thing, so completely reassuring; and then that indefinable quality in Stephen that made her look wrong in the clothes she was wearing, as though she and they had no right to each other, but above all no right to Anna. After a while he would steal up to bed, being painfully careful to tread very softly, fearful of waking his wife who might question: 'Philip, darling, it's so late--what have you been reading?' He would not want to answer, he would not want to tell her; that was why he must tread very softly. The next morning, he would be very tender to Anna--but even more tender to Stephen. 5 As the spring waxed more lusty and strode into summer, Stephen grew conscious that Collins was changing. The change was almost intangible at first, but the instinct of children is not mocked. Came a day when Collins turned on her quite sharply, nor did she explain it by a reference to her knee. 'Don't always be under my feet now, Miss Stephen. Don't follow me about and don't be always staring. I 'ates being watched--you run up to the nursery, the basement's no place for young ladies.' After which such rebuffs were of frequent occurrence, if Stephen went anywhere near her. Miserable enigma! Stephen's mind groped about it like a little blind mole that is always in darkness. She was utterly confounded, while her love grew the stronger for so much hard pruning, and she tried to woo Collins by offerings of bull's-eyes and chocolate drops, which the maid took because she liked them. Nor was Collins so blameworthy as she appeared, for she, in her turn, was the puppet of emotion. The new footman was tall and exceedingly handsome. He had looked upon Collins with eyes of approval. He had said: Stop that damned kid hanging around you; if you don't she'll go blabbing about us.' And now Stephen knew very deep desolation because there was no one in whom to confide. She shrank from telling even her father--he might not understand, he might smile, he might tease her--if he teased her, however gently, she knew that she could not keep back her tears. Even Nelson had suddenly become quite remote. What was the good of trying to be Nelson? What was the good of dressing up any more--what was the good of pretending? She turned from her food, growing pasty and languid; until, thoroughly alarmed, Anna sent for the doctor. He arrived, and prescribed a dose of Gregory powder, finding nothing much wrong with the patient. Stephen tossed off the foul brew without a murmur--it was almost as though she liked it! The end came abruptly as is often the way, and it came when the child was alone in the garden, still miserably puzzling over Collins, who had been avoiding her for days. Stephen had wandered to an old potting-shed, and there, whom should she see but Collins and the footman; they appeared to be talking very earnestly together, so earnestly that they failed to hear her. Then a really catastrophic thing happened, for Henry caught Collins roughly by the wrists, and dragged her towards him, still handling her roughly, and he kissed her full on the lips. Stephen's head suddenly felt hot and dizzy, she was filled with a blind, uncomprehending rage; she wanted to cry out, but her voice failed completely, so that all she could do was to splutter. But the very next moment she had seized a broken flower-pot and had hurled it hard and straight at the footman. It struck him in the face, cutting open his cheek, down which the blood trickled slowly. He stood as though stunned, gently mopping the cut, while Collins stared dumbly at Stephen. Neither of them spoke, they were feeling too guilty--they were also too much astonished. Then Stephen turned and fled from them wildly. Away and away, anyhow, anywhere, so long as she need not see them! She sobbed as she ran and covered her eyes, tearing her clothes on the shrubs in passing, tearing her stockings and the skin of her legs as she lunged against intercepting branches. But suddenly the child was caught in strong arms, and her face was pressing against her father, and Sir Philip was carrying her back to the house, and along the wide passage to his study. He held her on his knee, forbearing to question, and at first she crouched there like a little dumb creature that had somehow got itself wounded. But her heart was too young to contain this new trouble--too heavy it felt, too much over-burdened, so the trouble came bubbling up from her heart and was told on Sir Philip's shoulder. He listened very gravely, just stroking her hair. 'Yes--yes--' he said softly; and then: go on, Stephen.' And when she had finished he was silent for some moments, while he went on stroking her hair. Then he said: 'I think I understand, Stephen--this thing seems more dreadful than anything else that has ever happened, more utterly dreadful--but you'll find that it will pass and be completely forgotten--you must try to believe me, Stephen. And now I'm going to treat you like a boy, and a boy must always be brave, remember. I'm not going to pretend as though you were a coward; why should I when I know that you're brave? I'm going to send Collins away to-morrow; do you understand, Stephen? I shall send her away. I shan't be unkind, but she'll go away to-morrow, and meanwhile I don't want you to see her again. You'll miss her at first, that will only be natural, but in time you'll find that you'll forget all about her; this trouble will just seem like nothing at all. I am telling you the truth, dear, I swear it. If you need me, remember that I'm always near you--you can come to my study whenever you like. You can talk to me about it whenever you're unhappy, and you want a companion to talk to.' He paused, then finished rather abruptly: 'Don't worry your mother, just come to, me, Stephen.' And Stephen, still catching her breath, looked straight at him. She nodded, and Sir Philip saw his own mournful eyes gazing back from his daughter's tear-stained face. But her lips set more firmly, and the cleft in her chin grew more marked with a new, childish will to courage. Bending down, he kissed her in absolute silence--it was like the sealing of a sorrowful pact. 6 Anna, who had been out at the time of the disaster, returned to find her husband waiting for her in the hall. 'Stephen's been naughty, she's up in the nursery; she's had one of her fits of temper,' he remarked. In spite of the fact that he had obviously been waiting to intercept Anna, he now spoke quite lightly. Collins and the footman must go, he told her. As for Stephen, he had had a long talk with her already--Anna had better just let the thing drop, it had only been childish temper. Anna hurried upstairs to her daughter. She, herself, had not been a turbulent child, and Stephen's outbursts always made her feel helpless; however, she was fully prepared for the worst. But she found Stephen sitting with her chin on her hand, and calmly staring out of the window; her eyes were still swollen and her face very pale, otherwise she showed no great signs of emotion; indeed she actually smiled up at Anna--it was rather a stiff little smile. Anna talked kindly and Stephen listened, nodding her head from time to time in acquiescence. But Anna felt awkward, and as though for some reason the child was anxious to reassure her; that smile had meant to be reassuring--it had been such a very unchildish smile. The mother was doing all the talking she found. Stephen would not discuss her affection for Collins; on this point she was firmly, obdurately silent. She neither excused nor upheld her action in throwing a broken flower-pot at the footman. 'She's trying to keep something back,' thought Anna, feeling more nonplussed every moment. In the end Stephen took her mother's hand gravely and proceeded to stroke it, as though she were consoling. She said: 'Don't feel worried, 'cause that worries Father--I promise I'll try not to get into tempers, but you promise that you won't go on feeling worried.' And absurd though it seemed, Anna heard herself saying: 'Very well then--I do promise, Stephen.' Chapter Three 1 Stephen never went to her father's study in order to talk of her grief over Collins. A reticence strange in so young a child, together with a new, stubborn pride, held her tongue-tied, so that she fought out her battle alone, and Sir Philip allowed her to do so. Collins disappeared and with her the footman, and in Collins' stead came a new second housemaid, a niece of Mrs. Bingham's, who was even more timid than her predecessor, and who talked not at all. She was ugly, having small, round black eyes like currants--not inquisitive blue eyes like Collins. With set lips and tight throat Stephen watched this intruder as she scuttled to and fro doing Collins' duties. She would sit and scowl at poor Winefred darkly, devising small torments to add to her labours--such as stepping on dustpans and upsetting their contents, or hiding away brooms and brushes and slop-cloths--until Winefred, distracted, would finally unearth them from the most inappropriate places. ''Owever did them slop-cloths get in 'ere!' she would mutter, discovering them under a nursery cushion. And her face would grow blotchy with anxiety and fear as she glanced towards Mrs. Bingham. But at night, when the child lay lonely and wakeful, these acts that had proved a consolation in the morning, having sprung from a desperate kind of loyalty to Collins--these acts would seem trivial and silly and useless, since Collins could neither know of them nor see them, and the tears that had been held in check through the day would well under Stephen's eyelids. Nor could she, in those lonely watches of the night-time, pluck up courage enough to reproach the Lord Jesus, Who, she felt, could have helped her quite well had He chosen to accord her a housemaid's knee. She would think; 'He loves neither me nor Collins--He wants all the pain for Himself; He won't share it!' And then she would feel contrite: 'Oh, I'm sorry, Lord Jesus, 'cause I do know You love all miserable sinners!' And the thought that perhaps she had been unjust to Jesus would reduce her to still further tears. Very dreadful indeed were those nights spent in weeping, spent in doubting the Lord and His servant Collins. The hours would drag by in intolerable blackness, that in passing seemed to envelop Stephen's body, making her feel now hot and now cold. The grandfather clock on the stairs ticked so loudly that her head ached to hear its unnatural ticking--when it chimed, which it did at the hours and half-hours, its voice seemed to shake the whole house with terror, until Stephen would creep down under the bed-clothes to hide from she knew not what. But presently, huddled beneath the blankets, the child would be soothed by a warm sense of safety, and her nerves would relax, while her body grew limp with the drowsy softness of bed. Then suddenly a big and comforting yawn, and another, and another, until darkness and Collins and tall clocks that menaced, and Stephen herself; were all blended and merged into something quite friendly, a harmonious whole, neither fearful nor doubting--the blessed illusion we call sleep. 2 In the weeks that followed on Collins' departure, Anna tried to be very gentle with her daughter, having the child more frequently with her, more diligently fondling Stephen. Mother and daughter would walk in the garden, or wander about together through the meadows, and Anna would remember the son of her dreams, who had played with her in those meadows. A great sadness would cloud her eyes for a moment, an infinite regret as she looked down at Stephen; and Stephen, quick to discern that sadness, would press Anna's hand with small, anxious fingers; she would long to inquire what troubled her mother, but would be held speechless through shyness. The scents of the meadows would move those two strangely--the queer, pungent smell from the hearts of dog-daisies; the buttercup smell, faintly green like the grass; and then meadow-sweet that grew close by the hedges. Sometimes Stephen must tug at her mother's sleeve sharply--intolerable to bear that thick fragrance alone! One day she had said: Stand still or you'll hurt it--it's all round us--it's a white smell, it reminds me of you!' And then she had flushed, and had glanced up quickly, rather frightened in case she should find Anna laughing. But her mother had looked at her curiously, gravely, puzzled by this creature who seemed all contradictions--at one moment so hard, at another so gentle, gentle to tenderness, even. Anna had been stirred, as her child had been stirred, by the breath of the meadow-sweet under the hedges; for in this they were one, the mother and daughter, having each in her veins the warm Celtic blood that takes note of such things--could they only have divined it, such simple things might have formed a link between them. A great will to loving had suddenly possessed Anna Gordon, there in that sunlit meadow--had possessed them both as they stood together, bridging the gulf between maturity and childhood. They had gazed at each other as though asking for something, as though seeking for something, the one from the other; then the moment had passed--they had walked on in silence, no nearer in spirit than before. 3 Sometimes Anna would drive Stephen into Great Malvern, to the shops, with lunch at the Abbey Hotel on cold beef and wholesome rice pudding. Stephen loathed these excursions, which meant dressing up, but she bore them because of the honour which she felt to be hers when escorting her mother through the streets, especially Church Street with its long, busy hill, because everyone saw you in Church Street. Hats would be lifted with obvious respect, while a humbler finger might fly to a forelock; women would bow, and a few even curtsy to the lady of Morton--women in from the country with speckled sunbonnets that looked like their hens, and kind faces like brown, wrinkled apples. Then Anna must stop to inquire about calves and babies and foals, indeed all such creatures as prosper on farms, and her voice would be gentle because she loved such young creatures. Stephen would stand just a little behind her, thinking how gracious and lovely she was; comparing her slim and elegant shoulders with the toil-thickened back of old Mrs. Bennett, with the ugly, bent spine of young Mrs. Thompson, who coughed when she spoke and then said: 'I beg pardon!' as though she were conscious that one did not cough in front of a goddess like Anna. Presently Anna would look round for Stephen: 'Oh, there you are, darling! We must go into Jackson's and change mother's books'; or, 'Nanny wants some more saucers; let's walk on and get them at Langley's.' Stephen would suddenly spring to attention, especially if they were crossing the street. She would look right and left for imaginary traffic, slipping a hand under Anna's elbow. 'Come with me,' she would order; 'and take care of the puddles, 'cause you might get your feet wet--hold on by me, Mother!' Anna would feel the small hand at her elbow, and would think that the fingers were curiously strong; strong and efficient they would feel like Sir Philip's and this always vaguely displeased her. Nevertheless she would smile at Stephen while she let the child guide her in and out between the puddles. She would say: thank you, dear; you're as strong as a lion!' trying to keep that displeasure from her voice. Very protective and careful was Stephen when she and her mother were out alone together. Not all her queer shyness could prevent her protecting, nor could Anna's own shyness save her from protection, She was forced to submit to a quiet supervision that was painstaking, gentle but extremely persistent. And yet was this love? Anna often wondered. It was not, she felt sure, the trusting devotion that Stephen had always felt for her father; it was more like a sort of instinctive admiration, coupled with a large, patient kindness. 'If she'd only talk to me as she talks to Philip, I might get to understand her,' Anna would muse. 'It's so odd not to know what she's feeling and thinking, to suspect that something's always being kept in the background.' Their drives home from Malvern were usually silent, for Stephen would feel that her task was accomplished, her mother no longer needing her protection now that the coachman had the care of them both--he, and the arrogant-looking grey cobs that were yet so mannerly and gentle. As for Anna, she would sigh and lean back in her corner, weary of trying to make conversation. She would wonder if Stephen were tired or just sulky, or if, after all, the child might be stupid. Ought she, perhaps, to feel sorry for the child? She could never quite make up her mind. Meanwhile, Stephen, enjoying the comfortable brougham, would begin to indulge in kaleidoscopic musings, those musings that belong to the end of the day, and occasionally visit children. Mrs. Thompson's bent spine, it looked like a bow--not a rainbow but one of the archery kind; if you stretched a tight string from her feet to her head, could you shoot straight with Mrs. Thompson? China dogs--they had nice china dogs at Langley's--that made you think of someone; oh, yes, of course, Collins--Collins and a cottage with red china dogs. But you tried not to think about Collins! there was such a queer light slanting over the hills, a kind of gold glory, and it made you feel sorry--why should a gold glory make you feel sorry when it shone that way on the hills? Rice pudding, almost as bad as tapioca--not quite though, because it was not so slimy--tapioca evaded your efforts to chew it, it felt horrid, like biting down on your own gum. The lanes smelt of wetness, a wonderful smell! Yet when Nanny washed things they only smelt soapy--but then, of course, God washed the world without soap: being God, perhaps He didn't need any--you needed a lot, especially for hands--did God wash His hands without soap? Mother, talking about calves and babies, and looking like the Virgin Mary in church, the one in the stained-glass window with Jesus, which reminded you of Church Street, not a bad place after all; Church Street was really rather exciting--what fun it must be for men to have hats that they could take off, instead of just smiling--a bowler must be much more fun than a Leghorn--you couldn't take that off to Mother-- The brougham would roll smoothly along the white road, between stout leafy hedges starred with dog-roses; blackbirds and thrushes would be singing loudly, so loudly that Stephen could hear their voices above the quick clip, clip of the cobs and the muffled sounds of the carriage. Then from under her brows she must glance across at Anna, who she knew loved the songs of blackbirds and thrushes; but Anna's face would be hidden in shadow, while her hands lay placidly folded. And now the horses, nearing their stables, would redouble their efforts as they swung through the gates, the tall, iron gates of the parklands of Morton, faithful gates that had always meant home. Old trees would fly past, then the paddocks with their cattle--Worcestershire cattle with uncanny white faces; then the two quiet lakes where the swans reared their cygnets; then the lawns, and at last the wide curve in the drive, near the house, that would lead to the massive entrance. The child was too young to know why the beauty of Morton would bring a lump to her throat when seen thus in the gold haze of late afternoon, with its thoughts of evening upon it. She would want to cry out in a kind of protest that was very near tears: 'Stop it--stop it, you're hurting!' But instead she would blink hard and shut her lips tightly, unhappy yet happy. It was a queer feeling; it was too big for Stephen, who was still rather little when it came to affairs of the spirit. For the spirit of Morton would be part of her then, and would always remain somewhere deep down within her, aloof and untouched by the years that must follow, by the stress and the ugliness of life. In those after-years certain scents would evoke it--the scent of damp rushes growing by water; the kind, slightly milky odour of cattle; the smell of dried rose-leaves and orris-root and violets, that together with a vague suggestion of bees-wax always hung about Anna's rooms. Then that part of Stephen that she still shared with Morton would know what it was to feel terribly lonely, like a soul that wakes up to find itself wandering, unwanted, between the spheres. 4 Anna and Stephen would take off their coats, and go to the study in search of Sir Philip who would usually be there waiting. 'Hallo, Stephen!' he would say in his pleasant, deep voice, but his eyes would be resting on Anna. Stephen's eyes invariably followed her father's, so that she too would stand looking at Anna, and sometimes she must catch her breath in surprise at the fullness of that calm beauty. She never got used to her mother's beauty, it always surprised her each time she saw it; it was one of those queerly unbearable things, like the fragrance of meadow-sweet under the hedges. Anna might say: 'What's the matter, Stephen? For goodness' sake darling, do stop staring!' And Stephen would feel hot with shame and confusion because Anna had caught her staring. Sir Philip usually came to her rescue: 'Stephen, here's that new picture-book about hunting'; or, 'I know of a really nice print of young Nelson; if you're good I'll order it for you tomorrow'. But after a little he and Anna must get talking, amusing themselves irrespective of Stephen, inventing absurd little games, like two children, which games did not always include the real child. Stephen would sit there silently watching, but her heart would be a prey to the strangest emotions--emotions that seven-years-old could not cope with, and for which it could find no adequate names. All she would know was that seeing her parents together in this mood, would fill her with longings for something that she wanted yet could not define--a something that would make her as happy as they were. And this something would always be mixed up with Morton, with grave, stately rooms like her father's study, with wide views from windows that let in much sunshine, and the scents of a spacious garden. Her mind would go groping about for a reason, and would find no reason--unless it were Collins--but Collins would refuse to fit into these pictures; even love must admit that she did not belong there any more than the brushes and buckets and slop-cloths belonged in that dignified study. Presently Stephen must go off to her tea, leaving the two grown-up children together; secretly divining that neither of them would miss her--not even her father. Arrived in the nursery she would probably be cross, because her heart felt very empty and tearful; or because, having looked at herself in the glass, she had decided that she loathed her abundant long hair. Snatching at a slice of thick bread and butter, she would upset the milk jug, or break a new tea-cup, or smear the front of her dress with her fingers, to the fury of Mrs. Bingham. If she spoke at such times it was usually to threaten: 'I shall cut all my hair off, you see if I don't!' or, 'I hate this white dress and I'm going to bum it--it makes me feel idiotic!' But once launched she would dig up the grievances of months, going back to the time of the would-be young Nelson, loudly complaining that being a girl spoilt everything--even Nelson. The rest of the evening would be spent in grumbling, because one does grumble when one is unhappy--at least one does grumble when one is seven--later on it may seem rather useless. At last the hour of the bath would arrive, and still grumbling, Stephen must submit to Mrs. Bingham, fidgeting under the nurse's rough fingers like a dog in the hands of a trimmer. There she would stand pretending to shiver, a strong little figure, narrow-hipped and wide-shouldered; her flanks as wiry and thin as a greyhound's and even more ceaselessly restless. 'God doesn't use soap!' she might suddenly remark. At which Mrs. Bingham must smile, none too kindly: 'Maybe not, Miss Stephen--He don't 'ave to wash you; if He did He'd need plenty of soap, I'll be bound!' The bath over, and Stephen garbed in her nightgown, a long pause would ensue, known as: 'Waiting for Mother', and if mother, for some reason, did not happen to arrive, the pause could be spun out for quite twenty minutes, or for half an hour even, if luck was with Stephen, and the nursery clock not too precise and old-maidish. 'Now come on, say your prayers,' Mrs. Bingham would order, 'and you'd better ask the dear Lord to forgive you--impious I calls it, and you a young lady! Carrying on because you can't be a boy!' Stephen would kneel by the side of the bed, but in such moods as these her prayers would sound angry. The nurse would protest: 'Not so loud, Miss Stephen! Pray slower, and don't shout at the Lord, He won't like it!' But Stephen would continue to shout at the Lord in a kind of impotent defiance. Chapter Four 1 The sorrows of childhood are mercifully passing, for it is only when maturity has rendered soil mellow that grief will root very deeply. Stephen's grief for Collins, in spite of its violence, or perhaps because of that very violence, wore itself out like a passing tempest and was all but spent by the autumn. By Christmas, the gusts when they came were quite gentle, rousing nothing more disturbing than a faint melancholy--by Christmas it required quite an effort to recapture the charm of Collins. Stephen was nonplussed and rather uneasy; to have loved so greatly and now to forget! It made her feel childish and horribly silly, as though she had cried over cutting her finger. As on all grave occasions, she considered the Lord, remembering His love for miserable sinners: Teach me to love Collins Your way,' prayed Stephen, trying hard to squeeze out some tears in the process, 'teach me to love her 'cause she's mean and unkind and won't be a proper sinner that repenteth.' But the tears would not come, nor was prayer what it had been; it lacked something--she no longer sweated when she prayed. Then an awful thing happened, the maid's image was fading, and try as she would Stephen could not recall certain passing expressions that had erstwhile allured her. Now she could not see Collins' face at all dearly even if she willed very hard in the dark. Thoroughly disgruntled, she bethought her of books, books of fairy tales, hitherto not much in favour, especially of those that treated of spells, incantations and other unlawful proceedings. She even requested the surprised Mrs. Bingham to read from the Bible: 'You know where,' coaxed Stephen, 'it's the place they were reading in church last Sunday, about Saul and a witch with a name like Edna--the place where she makes some person come up, 'cause the king had forgotten what he looked like.' But if prayer bad failed Stephen, her spells also failed her; indeed they behaved as spells do when said backwards, making her see, not the person she wished to, but a creature entirely different. For Collins now had a most serious rival, one who had lately appeared at the stables. He was not possessed of a real housemaid's knee, but instead, of four deeply thrilling brown legs--he was two up on legs and one up on a tail, which was rather unfair on Collins! that Christmas, when Stephen was eight years old, Sir Philip had bought her a hefty bay pony; she was learning to ride him, could ride him already, being naturally skilful and fearless. There had been quite a heated discussion with Anna, because Stephen had insisted on riding astride. In this she had shown herself very refractory, falling off every time she tried the side-saddle--quite obvious, of course, this falling-off process, but enough to subjugate Anna. And now Stephen would spend long hours at the stables, swaggering largely in corduroy breeches, hobnobbing with Williams, the old stud groom, who had a soft place in his heart for the child. She would say: 'Come up, horse!' in the same tone as Williams; or, pretending to a knowledge she was far from possessing: 'Is that fetlock a bit puffy? It looks to me puffy; supposing we put on a nice wet bandage.' Then Williams would rub his rough chin as though thinking: 'Maybe yes--maybe no--' he would temporize, wisely. She grew to adore the smell of the stables; it was far more enticing than Collins' perfume--the Erasmic she had used on her afternoons out, and which had once smelt so delicious. And the pony! So strong, so entirely fulfilling, with his round, gentle eyes, and his heart big with courage--he was surely more worthy of worship than Collins, who had treated you badly because of the footman! And yet--and yet--you owed something to Collins, just because you had loved her, though you couldn't any more. It was dreadfully worrying, all this hard thinking, when you wished to enjoy a new pony! Stephen would stand there rubbing her chin in an almost exact imitation of Williams. She could not produce the same scrabby sound, but in spite of this drawback, the movement would soothe her. Then one morning she had a bright inspiration: 'Come up, horse!' she commanded, slapping the pony. 'Come up, horse, and let me get close to your ear, 'cause I'm going to whisper something dreadfully important.' Laying her cheek against his firm neck, she said softly: 'You're not you any more, you're Collins!' So Collins was comfortably transmigrated. It was Stephen's last effort to remember. 2 Came the day when Stephen rode out with her father to a meet, a glorious and memorable day. Side by side the two of them jogged through the gates, and the lodgekeeper's wife must smile to see Stephen sitting her smart bay pony astride, and looking so comically like Sir Philip. 'It do be a pity as her isn't a boy, our young lady,' she told her husband. It was one of those still, slightly frosty mornings when the landing is tricky on the north side of the hedges; when the smoke from farm chimneys rises straight as a ramrod; when the scent of log fires or of burning brushwood, though left far behind, still persists in the nostrils. A crystal clear morning, like a draught of spring water, and such mornings are good when one is young. The pony tugged hard and fought at his bridle; he was trembling with pleasure, for he was no novice; he knew all about signs and wonders in stables, such as large feeds of corn administered early, and extra long groomings, and pink coats, with brass buttons, like the hunt coat Sir Philip was wearing. He frisked down the road, a mass of affectation, demanding some skill on the part of his rider; but the child's hands were strong yet exceedingly gentle--she possessed that rare gift, perfect hands on a horse. 'This is better than being young Nelson,' thought Stephen, ''cause this way I'm happy just being myself.' Sir Philip looked down at his daughter with contentment; she was good to look upon, he decided. And yet his contentment was not quite complete, so that he looked away again quickly, sighing a little, because, somehow these days, he had taken to sighing over Stephen. The meet was a large one. People noticed the child; Colonel Antrim, the Master, rode up and spoke kindly: 'You've a fine pony there, but he'll need a bit of holding!' And then to her father: 'Is she safe astride, Philip? Violet's learning to ride, but side-saddle, I prefer it--I never think girl children get the grip astride; they aren't built for it, haven't the necessary muscle; still, no doubt she'll stick on by balance.' Stephen flushed: 'No doubt she'll stick on by balance!' the words rankled, oh, very deeply they rankled. Violet was learning to ride side-saddle, that small, flabby lump who squealed if you pinched her; that terrified creature of muslins and ribbons and hair that curled over the nurse's finger! Why, Violet could never come to tea without crying, could never play a game without getting herself hurt! She had fat, wobbly legs too, just like a rag doll--and you, Stephen, had been compared to Violet! Ridiculous of course, and yet all of a sudden you felt less impressive in your fine riding breeches. You felt--well, not foolish exactly, but self-conscious--not quite at your ease, a little bit wrong. It was almost as though you were playing at young Nelson again, were only pretending. But you said: 'I've got muscles, haven't I, Father? Williams says I've got riding muscles already!' then you dug your heels sharply into the pony, so that he whisked round, bucking and rearing. As for you, you stuck to his back like a limpet. Wasn't that enough to convince them? 'Steady on, Stephen!' came Sir Philip's voice, warning. Then the Master's: 'She's got a fine seat, I'll admit it--Violet's a little bit scared on a horse, but I think she'll get confidence later; I hope so.' And now hounds were moving away towards cover, tails waving--they looked like an army with banners. 'Hi, Starbright--Fancy! Get in, little bitch! Hi, Frolic, get on with it, Frolic!' The long lashes shot out with amazing precision, stinging a flank or stroking a shoulder, while the four-legged Amazons closed up their ranks for the serious business ahead. 'Hi, Starbright!' Whips cracked and horses grew restless; Stephen's mount required undivided attention. She had no time to think of her muscles or her grievance, but only of the creature between her small knees. 'All right, Stephen?' 'Yes, Father.' Well, go steady at your fences; it may be a little bit slippery this morning.' But Sir Philip's voice did not sound at all anxious; indeed there was a note of deep pride in his voice. 'He knows that I'm not just a rag doll, like Violet; he knows that I'm different to her!' thought Stephen. 3 The strange, implacable heart-broken music of hounds giving tongue as they break from cover; the cry of the huntsman as he stands in his stirrups; the thud of hooves pounding ruthlessly forward over long, green, undulating meadows. The meadows flying back as though seen from a train, the meadows streaming away behind you; the acrid smell of horse sweat caught in passing; the smell of damp leather, of earth and bruised herbage--all sudden, all passing--then the smell of wide spaces, the air smell, cool yet as potent as wine. Sir Philip was looking back over his shoulder: 'All right, Stephen?' Oh, yes--' Stephen's voice sounded breathless. Steady on! Steady on!' They were coming to a fence, and Stephen's grip tightened a little. The pony took the fence in his stride very gaily; for an instant he seemed to stay poised in mid-air as though he had wings, then he touched earth again, and away without even pausing. 'All right, Stephen?' 'Yes, yes!' Sir Philip's broad back was bent forward over the shoulder of his hunter; the crisp auburn hair in the nape of his neck showed bright where the winter sunshine touched it; and as the child followed that purposeful back, she felt that she loved it utterly, entirely. At that moment it seemed to embody all kindness, all strength, and all understanding. 4 They killed not so very far from Worcester; it had been a stiff run, the best of the season. Colonel Antrim came jogging along to Stephen, whose prowess had amused and surprised him. 'Well, well,' he said, grinning, 'so here you are, madam, still with a leg on each side of your horse--I'm going to tell Violet she'll have to buck up. By the way, Philip, can Stephen come to tea on Monday, before Roger goes back to school? She can? Oh, splendid! And now where's that brush? I think our young Stephen here takes it.' Strange it is, but unforgettable moments are often connected with very small happenings, happenings that assume fictitious proportions, especially when we are children. If Colonel Antrim had offered Stephen the crown of England on a red velvet cushion, it is doubtful whether her pride would have equalled the pride that she felt when the huntsman came forward and presented her with her first hunting trophy--the rather pathetic, bedraggled little brush, that had weathered so many hard miles. Just for an instant the child's heart misgave her, as she looked at the soft, furry thing in her hand; but the joy of attainment was still hot upon her, and that incomparable feeling of elation that comes from the knowledge of personal courage, so that she forgot the woes of the fox in remembering the prowess of Stephen. Sir Philip fastened the brush to her saddle. 'You rode well,' he said briefly, then turned to the Master. But she knew that that day she had not failed him, for his eyes had been bright when they rested on hers; she had seen great love in those melancholy eyes, together with a curiously wistful expression of which her youth lacked understanding. And now many people smiled broadly at Stephen, patting her pony and calling him a flier. One old farmer remarked: ''E do be a good plucked un, and so be 'is rider--beggin' your pardon.' At which Stephen must blush and grow slightly mendacious, pretending to give all the credit to the pony, pretending to feel very humble of spirit, which she knew she was far from feeling. 'Come along!' called Sir Philip. 'No more to-day, Stephen, your poor little fellow's had enough for one day.' Which was true, since Collins was all of a tremble, what with excitement and straining short legs to keep up with vainglorious hunters. Whips touched hats: 'Good-bye, Stephen, come out soon again--See you on Tuesday, Sir Philip, with the Croome.' And the field settled down to the changing of horses, before drawing yet one more cover. 5 Father and daughter rode home through the twilight, and now there were no dog-roses in the hedges, the hedges stood leafless and grey with frost rime, a network of delicate branches. The earth smelt as clean as a newly washed garment--it smelt of 'God's washing', as Stephen called it--while away to the left, from a distant farm-house, came the sound of a yard-dog, barking. Small lights were glowing in cottage windows as yet uncurtained, as yet very friendly; and beyond, where the great hills of Malvern showed blue against the pale sky, many small lights were burning--lights of home newly lit on the altar of the hills to the God of both hills and homesteads. No birds were singing in the trees by the roadside, but a silence prevailed, more lovely than bird song; the thoughtful and holy silence of winter, the silence of trustfully waiting furrows. For the soil is the greatest saint of all ages, knowing neither impatience, nor fear, nor doubting; knowing only faith, from which spring all blessings that are needful to nurture man. Sir Philip said: 'Are you happy, my Stephen?' And she answered: 'I'm dreadfully happy, Father. I'm so dreadfully happy that it makes me feel frightened, 'cause I mayn't always last happy--not this way.' He did not ask why she might not last happy; he just nodded, as though he admitted a reason; but he laid his hand over hers on the bridle for a moment, a large, and comforting hand. Then the peace of the evening took possession of Stephen, that and the peace of a healthy body tired out with fresh air and much vigorous movement, so that she swayed a little in her saddle and came near to falling asleep. The pony, even more tired than his rider, jogged along with neck drooping and reins hanging slackly, too weary to shy at the ogreish shadows that were crouching ready to scare him. His small mind was doubtless concentrated on fodder; on the bucket of water nicely seasoned with gruel; on the groom's soothing hiss as he rubbed down and bandaged; on the warm blanket clothing, so pleasant in winter, and above all on that golden bed of deep straw that was sure to be waiting in his stable. And now a great moon had swung up very slowly; and the moon seemed to pause, staring hard at Stephen, while the frost rime turned white with the whiteness of diamonds, and the shadows turned black and lay folded like velvet round the feet of the drowsy hedges. But the meadows beyond the hedges turned silver, and so did the road to Morton. * * * It was late when they reached the stables at last, and old Williams was waiting in the yard with a lantern. 'Did you kill?' he inquired, according to custom; then he saw Stephen's trophy and chuckled. Stephen tried to spring easily out of the saddle as her father had done, but her legs seemed to fail her. To her horror and chagrin her legs hung down stiffly as though made of wood; she could not control them; and to make matters worse, Collins now grew impatient and began to walk off to his loose-box. Then Sir Philip put two strong arms around Stephen, and he lifted her bodily as though she were a baby, and he carried her, only faintly protesting, right up to the door of the house and beyond it--right up indeed, to the warm pleasant nursery where a steaming hot bath was waiting. Her head fell back and lay on his shoulder, while her eyelids drooped, heavy with well-earned sleep; she had to blink very hard several times over in order to get the better of that sleep. 'Happy, darling?' he whispered, and his grave face bent nearer. She could feel his cheek, rough at the end of the day, pressed against her forehead, and she loved that kind roughness, so that she put up her hand and stroked it. So dreadfully, dreadfully happy, Father,' she murmured, 'so--dreadfully happy--' Chapter Five 1 On the Monday that followed Stephen's first day out hunting she woke with something very like a weight on her chest; in less than two minutes she knew why this was--she was going to tea with the Antrims. Her relations with other children were peculiar, she thought so herself and so did the children; they could not define it and neither could Stephen, but there it was all the same. A high-spirited child she should have been popular, and yet she was not, a fact which she divined, and this made her feel ill at ease with her playmates, who in their turn felt ill at ease. She would think that the children were whispering about her, whispering and laughing for no apparent reason; but although this had happened on one occasion, it was not always happening as Stephen imagined. She was painfully hyper-sensitive at times, and she suffered accordingly. Of all the children that Stephen most dreaded, Violet and Roger Antrim took precedence; especially Roger, who was ten years old, and already full to the neck of male arrogance--he had just been promoted to Etons that winter, which added to his overbearing pride. Roger Antrim had round, brown eyes like his mother, and a short, straight nose that might one day be handsome; he was rather a thick-set, plump little boy, whose buttocks looked too large in a short Eton jacket, especially when he stuck his hands in his pockets and strutted, which he did very often. Roger was a bully; he bullied his sister, and would dearly have loved to bully Stephen; but Stephen nonplussed him, her arms were so strong, he could never wrench Stephen's arms backwards like Violet's; he could never make her cry or show any emotion when he pinched her, or tugged roughly at her new hair ribbon, and then Stephen would often beat him at games, a fact which he deeply resented. She could bowl at cricket much straighter than he could; she climbed trees with astonishing skill and prowess, and even if she did tear her skirts in the process it was obviously cheek for a girl to climb at all. Violet never climbed trees; she stood at the bottom admiring the courage of Roger. He grew to hate Stephen as a kind of rival, a kind of intruder into his especial province; he was always longing to take her down a peg, but being slow-witted he was foolish in his methods--no good daring Stephen, she responded at once, and usually went one better. As for Stephen, she loathed him, and her loathing was increased by a most humiliating consciousness of envy. Yes, despite his shortcomings she envied young Roger with his thick, clumping boots, his cropped hair and his Etons; envied his school and his masculine companions of whom he would speak grandly as: 'all the other fellows!'; envied his right to climb trees and play cricket and football--his right to be perfectly natural; above all she envied his splendid conviction that being a boy constituted a privilege in life; she could well understand that conviction, but this only increased her envy. Stephen found Violet intolerably silly, she cried quite as loudly when she bumped her own head as when Roger applied his most strenuous torments. But what irritated Stephen, was the fact that she suspected that Violet almost enjoyed those torments. 'He's so dreadfully strong!' she had confided in Stephen, with something like pride in her voice. Stephen had longed to shake her for that: 'I can pinch quite as hard as he can!' she had threatened. 'If you think he's stronger than I am, I'll show you!' At which Violet had rushed away screaming. Violet was already full of feminine poses; she loved dolls, but not quite so much as she pretended. People said: 'Look at Violet, she's like a little mother; it's so touching to see that instinct in a child!' then Violet would become still more touching. She was always thrusting her dolls upon Stephen, making her undress them and put them to bed. 'Now you're Nanny, Stephen, and I'm Gertrude's mother, or you can be mother this time if you'd rather--Oh, be careful, you'll break her! Now you've pulled off a button! I do think you might play more like I do!' And then Violet knitted, or said that she knitted--Stephen had never seen anything but knots. 'Can't you knit?' she would say, looking scornfully at Stephen, 'I can--Mother called me a dear little housewife!' then Stephen would lose her temper and speak rudely: 'You're a dear little sop, that's what you are!' For hours she must play stupid doll-games with Violet, because Roger would not always play real games in the garden. He hated to be beaten, yet how could she help it? Could she help throwing straighter than Roger? They had nothing whatever in common, these children, but the Antrims were neighbours, and even Sir Philip; indulgent though he was, insisted that Stephen should have friends of her own age to play with. He had spoken quite sharply on several occasions when the child had pleaded to be allowed to stay at home. Indeed he spoke sharply that very day at luncheon: 'Eat your pudding please, Stephen; come now, finish it quickly! If all this fuss is about the little Antrims, then Father won't have it, it's ridiculous, darling.' So Stephen had hastily swallowed her pudding and escaped upstairs to the nursery. 2 The Antrims lived half a mile from Ledbury, on the other side of the hills. It was quite a long drive to their house from Morton--Stephen was driven over in the dog-cart. She sat beside Williams in gloomy silence, with the collar of her coat turned up to her ears. She was filled with a sense of bitter injustice; why should they insist on this stupid expedition? Even her father had been cross at luncheon because she preferred to stay at home with him. Why should she be forced to know other children? they didn't want her nor she them. And above all the Antrims! that idiotic Violet--Violet who was learning to ride side-saddle--and Roger strutting about in his Etons, and bragging, always bragging because he was a boy--and their mother who was quite sure to patronize Stephen because being grown-up made her put on a manner. Stephen could hear her infuriating voice, the voice she reserved for children: Ah, here you are, Stephen! Now then, little people, run along and have a good feed in the schoolroom. There's plenty of cake; I knew Stephen was coining; we all know Stephen's capacity for cake!' Stephen could hear Violet's timorous giggle and Roger's guffaw as they greeted this sally. She could feel his fat fingers pinching her arm; pinching cruelly, slyly, as he strutted beside her. Then his whisper: 'You're a pig! You eat much more than I do, mother said so today, and boys need more than girls!' then Violet: 'I'm not very fond of plum cake, it makes me feel sicky--mother says it's indigestion. I could never eat big bits of plum cake like Stephen. Nanny says I'm a dainty feeder.' then Stephen herself, saying nothing at all, but glaring sideways at Roger. The dog-cart was slowly climbing British Camp, that long, steep hill out of Little Malvern. The cold air grew colder, but marvellously pure it was, up there above the valleys. The peak of the Camp stood out clearly defined by snow that had fallen lightly that morning, and as they breasted the crest of the hill, the sun shone out on the snow. Away to the right lay the valley of the Wye, a long, lovely valley of deep blue shadows; a valley of small homesteads and mothering trees, of soft undulations and wide, restful spaces leading away to a line of dim mountains--leading away to the mountains of Wales, that lay just over the border. And because she loved this kind of English valley, Stephen's sulky eyes must turn and rest upon it; not all her apprehension and sense of injustice could take from her eyes the joy of that seeing. She must gaze and gaze, she must let it possess her, the peace, the wonder that lay in such beauty; while the unwilling tears welled up under her lids--she not knowing why they had come there. And now they were trotting swiftly downhill; the valley had vanished, but the woods of Eastnor stood naked and lovely, and the forms of their trees were more perfect than forms that are made with hands--unless with the hands of God. Stephen's eyes turned again; she could not stay sulky, for these were the woods where she drove with her father. Twice every spring they drove up to these woods and through them to the stretching parkland beyond. There were deer in the park--they would sometimes get out of the dog-cart so that Stephen could feed the does. She began to whistle softly through her teeth, an accomplishment in which she took a great pride. Impossible to go on feeling resentful when the sun was shining between the bare branches, when the air was as clear and as bright as crystal, when the cob was literally flying through the air, taking all Williams' strength to hold him. Steady boy--steady on! He be feeling the weather--gets into his blood and makes him that skittish--Now go quiet, you young blight! Just look at him, will you, he's got himself all of a lather!' 'Let me drive,' pleaded. Stephen. 'Oh, please, please, Williams!' But Williams shook his head as he grinned at her broadly: 'I've got old bones, Miss Stephen, and old bones breaks quick when it's frosty, so I've heard tell.' 3 Mrs. Antrim was waiting for Stephen in the lounge--she was always waiting to waylay her in the lounge, or so it appeared to Stephen. The lounge was a much overdressed apartment, full of small, useless tables and large, clumsy chairs. You bumped into the chairs and tripped over the tables; at least you did if you were Stephen. There was one deadly pitfall you never could avoid, a huge polar bear skin that lay on the floor. Its stuffed head protruded at a most awkward angle; you invariably stubbed your big toe on that head. Stephen, true to tradition, stubbed her toe rather badly as she blundered towards Mrs. Antrim. 'Dear me,' remarked her hostess, 'you are a great girl; why your feet must be double the size of Violet's! Come here and let me have a look at your feet.' then she laughed as though something amused her. Stephen was longing to rub her big toe, but she thought better of it, enduring in silence. 'Children!' called Mrs. Antrim, 'Here's Stephen, I'm sure she's as hungry as a hunter!' Violet was wearing a pale blue silk frock; even at seven she was vain of her appearance. She had cried until she had got permission to wear that particular pale blue frock, which was usually reserved for parties. Her brown hair was curled into careful ringlets, and tied with a very large bow of blue ribbon. Mrs. Antrim glanced quickly from Stephen to Violet with a look of maternal pride. Roger was bulging inside his Etons; his round cheeks were puffed, very pink and aggressive. He eyed Stephen coldly from above a white collar that was obviously fresh from the laundry. On their way upstairs he pinched Stephen's leg, and Stephen kicked backwards, swiftly and neatly. 'I suppose you think you can kick!' grunted Roger, who was suffering acutely at that moment from his shin. You've not got the strength of a flea; I don't feel it!' At Violet's request they were left alone for tea; she liked playing the hostess, and her mother spoilt her. A special small teapot had had to be unearthed, in order that Violet could lift it. 'Sugar?' she inquired with tongs poised in mid air, 'And milk?' she added, imitating her mother. Mrs. Antrim always said: And milk,' in that tone--it made you feel that you must be rather greedy. 'Oh, chuck it!' growled Roger, whose shin was still aching. You know I want milk and four lumps of sugar.' Violet's underlip began to tremble, but she held her ground with unexpected firmness. 'May I give you a little more milk, Stephen dear? Or would you prefer no milk, only lemon?' There isn't any lemon and you know it!' bawled Roger. 'Here, give me my tea or I'll spoil your hair ribbon.' He grabbed at his cup and nearly upset it. 'Oh, oh!' shrilled Violet. 'My dress!' They settled down to the meal at last, but Stephen observed that Roger was watching; every mouthful she ate she could feel him watching, so that she grew self-conscious. She was hungry, not having eaten much luncheon, but now she could not enjoy her cake; Roger himself was stuffing like a grampus, but his eyes never left her face. Then Roger, the slow-witted in his dealings with Stephen, all but choked in the throes of a great inspiration. 'I say, you,' he began, with his mouth very full, 'what about a certain young lady out hunting? What about a fat leg on each side of her horse like a monkey on a stick, and everybody laughing!' 'They were not!' exclaimed Stephen, growing suddenly red. 'Oh, yes, but they were, though!' mocked Roger. Now had Stephen been wise she would have let the thing drop, for no fun is derived from a one-sided contest, but at eight years old one is not always wise, and moreover her pride had been stung to the quick. She said: 'I'd like to see you get the brush; why you can't stick on just riding round the paddock! I've seen you fall off, jumping nothing but a hurdle; I'd like to see you out hunting!' Roger swallowed some more cake; there was now no great hurry; he had thrown his sprat and had landed his mackerel. He had very much feared that she might not be drawn--it was not always easy to draw Stephen. 'Well now, listen,' he drawled, 'and I'll tell you something. You thought they admired you squatting on your pony; you thought you were being very grand, I'll bet, with your new riding breeches and your black velvet cap; you thought they'd suppose that you looked like a boy, just because you were trying to be one. As a matter of fact, if you really want to know, they were busting their sides; why, my father said so. He was laughing all the time at your looking so funny on that rotten old pony that's as fat as a porpoise. Why, he only gave you the brush for fun, because you were such a small kid--he said so. He said: "I gave Stephen Gordon the brush because I thought she might cry if I didn't."' 'You're a liar,' breathed Stephen, who had turned very pale. 'Oh, am I? Well, you ask father.' 'Do stop--' whimpered Violet, beginning to cry; 'you're horrid, you're spoiling my party.' But Roger was launched on his first perfect triumph; he had seen the expression in Stephen's eyes: 'And my mother said,' he continued more loudly, that your mother must be funny to allow you to do it; she said it was horrid to let girls ride that way; she said she was awfully surprised at your mother; she said that she'd have thought that your mother had more sense; she said that it wasn't modest; she said--' Stephen had suddenly sprung to her feet: 'How dare you! How dare you--my mother!' she spluttered. And now she was almost beside herself with rage, conscious only of one overwhelming impulse, and that to belabour Roger. A plate crashed to the ground and Violet screamed faintly. Roger, in his turn, had pushed back his chair; his round eyes were staring and rather frightened; he had never seen Stephen quite like this before. She was actually rolling up the sleeves of her smock. 'You cad!' she shouted, 'I'll fight you for this!' And she doubled her fist and shook it at Roger while he edged away from the table. She stood there an enraged and ridiculous figure in her Liberty smock, with her hard, boyish forearms. Her long hair had partly escaped from its ribbon, and the bow sagged down limply, crooked and foolish. All that was heavy in her face sprang into view, the strong line of the jaw, the square, massive brow, the eyebrows, too thick and too wide for beauty. And yet there was a kind of large splendour about her--absurd though she was, she was splendid at that moment--grotesque and splendid, like some primitive thing conceived in a turbulent age of transition. 'Are you going to fight me, you coward?' she demanded, as she stepped round the table and faced her tormentor. But Roger thrust his hands deep into his pockets: 'I don't fight with girls!' he remarked very grandly. Then he sauntered out of the schoolroom. Stephen's own hands fell and hung at her sides; her head drooped, and she stood staring down at the carpet. The whole of her suddenly drooped and looked helpless, as she stood staring down at the carpet. 'How could you!' began Violet, who was plucking up courage. 'Little girls don't have fights--I don't, I'd be frightened--' But Stephen cut her short: 'I'm going,' she said thickly; 'I'm going home to my father.' She went heavily downstairs and out into the lobby, where she put on her hat and coat; then made her way round the house to the stables, in search of old Williams and the dog-cart. 4 'You're home very early, Stephen,' said Anna, but Sir Philip was staring at his daughter's face. 'What's the matter?' he inquired, and his voice sounded anxious. 'Come here and tell me about it.' Then Stephen quite suddenly burst into tears, and she wept and she wept as she stood there before them, and she poured out her shame and humiliation, telling all that Roger had said about her mother, telling all that she, Stephen, would have done to defend her, had it not been that Roger would not fight with a girl. She wept and she wept without any restraint, scarcely knowing what she said--at that moment not caring. And Sir Philip listened with his head on his hand, and Anna listened bewildered and dumbfounded. She tried to kiss Stephen, to hold her to her, but Stephen, still sobbing, pushed her away; in this orgy of grief she resented consolation, so that in the end Anna took her to the nursery and delivered her over to the care of Mrs. Bingham, feeling that the child did not want her. When Anna went quietly back to the study, Sir Philip was still sitting with his head on his hand. She said: 'It's time you realized, Philip, that if you're Stephen's father, I'm her mother. So far you've managed the child your own way, and I don't think it's been successful. You've treated Stephen as though she were a boy--perhaps it's because I've not given you a son--' Her voice trembled a little but she went on gravely: 'It's not good for Stephen; I know it's not good, and at times it frightens me, Philip.' 'No, no!' he said, sharply. But Anna persisted: 'Yes, Philip, at times it makes me afraid--I can't tell you why, but it seems all wrong--it makes me feel--strange with the child.' He looked at her out of his melancholy eyes: 'Can't you trust me? Won't you try to trust me, Anna?' But Anna shook her head: 'I don't understand, why shouldn't you trust me, Philip?' And then in his terror for this well-beloved woman, Sir Philip committed the first cowardly action of his life--he who would not have spared himself pain, could not bear to inflict it on Anna. In his infinite pity for Stephen's mother, he sinned very deeply and gravely against Stephen, by withholding from that mother his own conviction that her child was not as other children. 'There's nothing for you to understand,' he said firmly, 'but I like you to trust me in all things.' After this they sat talking about the child, Sir Philip very quiet and reassuring. 'I've wanted her to have a healthy body,' he explained, 'that's why I've let her run more or less wild; but perhaps we'd better have a governess now, as you say; a French governess, my dear, if you'd prefer one--later on I've always meant to engage a bluestocking, some woman who's been to Oxford. I want Stephen to have the finest education that care and money can give her.' But once again Anna began to protest. 'What's the good of it all for a girl?' she argued. 'Did you love me any less because I couldn't do mathematics? Do you love me less now because I count on my fingers?' He kissed her. 'That's different, you're you,' he said, smiling, but a look that she knew well had come into his eyes, a cold, resolute expression, which meant that all persuasion was likely to be unavailing. Presently they went upstairs to the nursery, and Sir Philip shaded the candle with his hand, while they stood together gazing down at Stephen--the child was heavily asleep. 'Look, Philip,' whispered Anna, pitiful and shaken, 'look Philip--she's got two big tears on her cheek!' He nodded, slipping his arm around Anna: 'Come away,' he muttered, 'we may wake her.' Chapter Six 1 Mrs. Bingham departed unmourned and unmourning, and in her stead reigned Mademoiselle Duphot, a youthful French governess with a long, pleasant face that reminded Stephen of a horse. This equine resemblance was fortunate in one way--Stephen took to Mademoiselle Duphot at once--but it did not make for respectful obedience. On the contrary, Stephen felt very familiar, kindly familiar and quite at her ease; she petted Mademoiselle Duphot. Mademoiselle Duphot was lonely and homesick, and it must be admitted that she liked being petted. Stephen would rush off to get her a cushion, or a footstool or her glass of milk at eleven. 'Comme elle est gentille, cette drôle de petite fine, elle a si bon coeur,' would think Mademoiselle Duphot, and somehow geography would not seem to matter quite so much, or arithmetic either--in vain did Mademoiselle try to be strict, her pupil could always beguile her. Mademoiselle Duphot knew nothing about horses, in spite of the r fact that she looked so much like one, and Stephen would complacently entertain her with long conversation anent splints and spavins, cow hocks and colic, all mixed up together in a kind of wild veterinary jumble. Had Williams been listening, he might well have rubbed his chin, but Williams was not there to listen. As for Mademoiselle Duphot, she was genuinely impressed: 'Mais quel type, quel type!' she was always exclaiming. 'Vous êtes déjà une vraie petite Amazone, Stévenne.' 'N'est-ce pas?' agreed Stephen, who was picking up French. The child showed real ability for French, and this delighted her teacher; at the end of six months she could gabble quite freely, making quick little gestures and shrugging her shoulders. She liked talking French, it rather amused her, nor was she averse to mastering the grammar; what she could not endure were the long, foolish dictées from the edifying Bibliothèque Rose. Weak in all other respects with Stephen, Mademoiselle Duphot clung to these dictées; the Bibliothèque Rose became her last trench of authority, and she held it. '"Les Petites Filles Modèles",' Mademoiselle would announce, while Stephen yawned out her ineffable boredom; 'Maintenant nous allons retrouver Sophie--Where to did we arrive? Ah, oui, I remember: "Cette preuve de confiance toucha Sophie et augmenta encore son regret d'avoir été si méchante. '"Comment, se dit-elle, ai-je pu me livrer a une telle colère? Comment ai-je été si méchante avec des amies aussi bonnes que celles que j'ai id, et si hardie envers une personne aussi douce, aussi tendre que Mme. de Fleurville!"' From time to time the programme would be varied by extracts of an even more edifying nature, and 'Les Bons Enfants' would be chosen for dictation, to the scorn and derision of Stephen. 'La Maman, Donne-lui ton coeur, mon Henri; c'est ce que to pourras lui dormer de plus agréable. '--Mon coeur? Dit Henri en déboutonnant son habit et en ouvrant sa chemise. Mais comment faire? il me faudrait un couteau.' At which Stephen would giggle. One day she had added a comment of her own in the margin: 'Little beast, he was only shamming!' and Mademoiselle, coming on this unawares, had been caught in the act of laughing by her pupil. After which there was naturally less discipline than ever in the schoolroom, but considerably more friendship. However, Anna seemed quite contented, since Stephen was becoming so proficient in French; and observing that his wife looked less anxious these days, Sir Philip said nothing, biding his time. This frank, jaunty, slacking on the part of his daughter should be checked later on he decided. Meanwhile, Stephen grew fond of the mild-faced Frenchwoman, who in her turn adored the unusual child. She would confide her troubles to Stephen, those family troubles in which governesses abound--her Maman was old and delicate and needy; her sister had a wicked and spendthrift husband, and now her sister must make little bags for the grand shops in Paris that paid very badly, her sister was gradually losing her eyesight through making those little bead bags for the shops that cared nothing, and paid very badly. Mademoiselle sent Maman a part of her earnings, and sometimes, of course, she must help her sister. Her Maman must have her chicken on Sundays: 'Bon Dieu, il faut vivre--il faut manger, au moins--' And afterwards that chicken came in very nicely for Petite Marmite, which was made from his carcass and a few leaves of cabbage--Maman loved Petite Marmite, the warmth of it eased her old gums. Stephen would listen to these long dissertations with patience and with apparent understanding. She would nod her head wisely: 'Mais c'est dur,' she would comment, 'c'est terriblement dur, la vie!' But she never confided her own special troubles, and Mademoiselle Duphot sometimes wondered about her: 'Est-elle heureuse, cet &range petit être?' she would wonder. 'Sera-t-elle heureuse plus tard? Qui sait!' 2 Idleness and peace had reigned in the schoolroom for more than two years, when ex-Sergeant Smylie sailed over the horizon and proceeded to announce that he taught gymnastics and fencing. From that moment peace ceased to reign in the schoolroom, or indeed anywhere in the house for that matter. In vain did Mademoiselle Duphot protest that gymnastics and fencing thickened the ankles, in vain did Anna express disapproval, Stephen merely ignored them and consulted her father. 'I want to go in for Sandowing,' she informed him, as though they were discussing a career. He laughed: 'Sandowing? Well, and how will you start it?' Then Stephen explained about ex-Sergeant Smylie. 'I see,' nodded Sir Philip, 'you want to learn fencing.' And how to lift weights with my stomach,' she said quickly. 'Why not with your large front teeth?' he teased her. 'Oh, well,' he added, there's no harm in fencing or gymnastics either--provided, of course, that you don't try to wreck Morton Hall like a Samson wrecking the house of the Philistines; I foresee that that might easily happen--' Stephen grinned: 'But it mightn't if I cut off my hair! May I cut off my hair? Oh, do let me, Father!' 'Certainly not, I prefer to risk it,' said Sir Philip, speaking quite firmly. Stephen went pounding back to the schoolroom. 'I'm going to those classes!' she announced in triumph. 'I'm going to be driven over to Malvern next week; I'm going to begin on Tuesday, and I'm going to learn fencing so as I can kill your brother-in-law who's a beast to your sister, I'm going to fight duels for wives in distress, like men do in Paris, and I'm going to learn how to lift pianos on my stomach by expanding something--the diapan muscles--and I'm going to cut my hair off!' she mendaciously concluded, glancing sideways to observe the effect of this bombshell. 'Bon Dieu, soyez clément!' breathed Mademoiselle Duphot, casting her eyes to heaven. 3 It was not very long before ex-Sergeant Smylie discovered that in Stephen he had a star pupil. Some day you ought to make a champion fencer, if you work really hard at it, Miss,' he told her. Stephen did not learn to lift pianos with her stomach, but as time went on she did become quite an expert gymnast and fencer; and as Mademoiselle Duphot confided to Anna, it was after all very charming to watch her, so supple and young and quick in her movements. 'And she fence like an angel,' said Mademoiselle fondly, 'she fence now almost as well as she ride.' Anna nodded. She herself had seen Stephen fencing many times, and had thought it a fine performance for so young a child, but the fencing displeased her, so that she found it hard to praise Stephen. 'I hate all that sort of thing for girls,' she said slowly. 'But she fence like a man, with such power and such grace,' babbled Mademoiselle Duphot, the tactless. And now life was full of new interest for Stephen, an interest that centred entirely in her body. She discovered her body for a thing to be cherished, a thing of real value since its strength could rejoice her; and young though she was she cared for her body with great diligence, bathing it night and morning in dull, tepid water--cold baths were forbidden, and hot baths, she had heard, sometimes weakened the muscles. For gymnastics she wore her hair in a pigtail, and somehow that pigtail began to intrude on other occasions. In spite of protests, she always forgot and came down to breakfast with a neat, shining plait, so that Anna gave in in the end and said, sighing: 'Have your pigtail do, child, if you feel that you must--but I can't say it suits you, Stephen.' And Mademoiselle Duphot was foolishly loving. Stephen would stop in the middle of lessons to roll back her sleeves and examine her muscles; then Mademoiselle Duphot, instead of protesting, would laugh and admire her absurd little biceps. Stephen's craze for physical culture increased, and now it began to invade the schoolroom. Dumbbells appeared in the school-room bookcases, while half worn-out gym shoes skulked in the corners. Everything went by the board but this passion of the child's for training her body. And what must Sir Philip elect to do next, but to write out to Ireland and purchase a hunter for his daughter to ride--a real, thoroughbred hunter. And what must he say but: 'That's one for young Roger!' So that Stephen found herself comfortably laughing at the thought of young Roger; and that laugh went a long way towards healing the wound that had rankled within her--perhaps this was why Sir Philip had written out to Ireland for that thoroughbred hunter. The hunter, when he came, was grey-coated and slender, and his eyes were as soft as an Irish morning, and his courage was as bright as an Irish sunrise, and his heart was as young as the wild heart of Ireland, but devoted and loyal and eager for service, and his name was sweet on the tongue as you spoke it--being Raftery, after the poet. Stephen loved Raftery and Raftery loved Stephen. It was love at first sight, and they talked to each other for hours in his loose box--not in Irish or English, but in a quiet language having very few words but many small sounds and many small movements, which to both of them meant more than words. And Raftery said: 'I will carry you bravely, I will serve you all the days of my life.' And she answered: 'I will care for you night and day, Raftery--all the days of your life.' Thus Stephen and Raftery pledged their devotion, alone in his fragrant, hay-scented stable. And Raftery was five and Stephen was twelve when they solemnly pledged their devotion. Never was rider more proud or more happy than Stephen, when first she and Raftery went a-hunting; and never was youngster more wise or courageous than Raftery proved himself at his fences; and never can Bellerophon have thrilled to more daring than did Stephen, astride of Raftery that day, with the wind in her face and a fire in her heart that made life a thing of glory. At the very beginning of the run the fox turned in the direction of Morton, actually crossing the big north paddock before turning once more and making for Upton. In the paddock was a mighty, upstanding hedge, a formidable place concealing timber, and what must they do, these two young creatures, but go straight at it and get safely over--those who saw Raftery fly that hedge could never afterwards doubt his valour. And when they got home there was Anna waiting to pat Raftery, because she could not resist him. Because, being Irish, her hands loved the feel of fine horseflesh under their delicate fingers--and because she did very much want to be tender to Stephen, and understanding. But as Stephen dismounted, bespattered and dishevelled, and yet with that perversive look of her father, the words that Anna had been planning to speak died away before they could get themselves spoken--she shrank back from the child; but the child was too overjoyed at that moment to perceive it. 4 Happy days, splendid days of childish achievements; but they passed all too soon, giving place to the seasons, and there came the winter when Stephen was fourteen. On a January afternoon of bright sunshine, Mademoiselle Duphot sat dabbing her eyes; for Mademoiselle Duphot must leave her loved Stévenne, must give place to a rival who could teach Greek and Latin--she would go back to Paris, the poor Mademoiselle Duphot, and take care of her ageing Maman. Meanwhile, Stephen, very angular and lanky at fourteen, was standing before her father in his study. She stood still, but her glance kept straying to the window, to the sunshine that seemed to be beckoning through the window. She was dressed for riding in breeches and gaiters, and her thoughts were with Raftery. 'Sit down,' said Sir Philip, and his voice was so grave that her thoughts came back with a leap and a bound; 'you and I have got to talk this thing out, Stephen.' 'What thing, Father?' she faltered, sitting down abruptly. 'Your idleness, my child. The time has now come when all play and no work will make a dull Stephen, unless we pull ourselves together.' She rested her large, shapely hands on her knees and bent forward, searching his face intently. What she saw there was a quiet determination that spread from his lips to his eyes. She grew suddenly uneasy, like a youngster who objects to the rather unpleasant process of mouthing. 'I speak French,' she broke out, 'I speak French like a native; I can read and write French as well as Mademoiselle does.' 'And beyond that you know very little,' he informed her; 'it's not enough, Stephen, believe me.' There ensued a long silence, she tapping her leg with her whip, he speculating about her. Then he said, but quite gently: 'I've considered this thing--I've considered this matter of your education. I want you to have the same education, the same advantages as I'd give to my son--that is as far as possible--' he added, looking away from Stephen. 'But I'm not your son, Father,' she said very slowly, and even as she said it her heart felt heavy--heavy and sad as it bad not done for years, not since she was quite a small child. And at this he looked back at her with love in his eyes, love and something that seemed like compassion; and their looks met and mingled and held for a moment, speechless yet somehow expressing their hearts. Her own eyes clouded and she stared at her boots, ashamed of the tears that she felt might flow over. He saw this and went on speaking more quickly, as though anxious to cover her confusion. 'You're all the son that I've got,' he told her. 'You're brave and strong-limbed, but I want you to be wise--I want you to be wise for your own sake, Stephen, because at the best life requires great wisdom. I want you to learn to make friends of your books; some day you may need them, because--' He hesitated, 'because you mayn't find life at all easy, we none of us do, and books are good friends. I don't want you to give up your fencing and gymnastics or your riding, but I want you to show moderation. You've developed your body, now develop your mind; let your mind and your muscles help, not hinder each other--it can be done, Stephen, I've done it myself, and in many respects you're like me. I've brought you up very differently from most girls, you must know that--look at Violet Antrim. I've indulged you, I suppose, but I don't think I've spoilt you, because I believe in you absolutely. I believe in myself, too, where you're concerned; I believe in my own sound judgment. But you've now got to prove that my judgment's been sound, we've both got to prove it to ourselves and to your mother--she's been very patient with my unusual methods--I'm going to stand trial now, and she'll be my judge. Help me, I'm going to need all your help; if you fail then I fail, we shall go down together. But we're not going to fail, you're going to work hard when your new governess comes, and when you're older you're going to become a fine woman; you must, dear--I love you so much that you can't disappoint me.' His voice faltered a little, then he held out his hand: 'and Stephen, come here--look me straight in the eyes--what is honour, my daughter?' She looked into his anxious, questioning eyes: 'You are honour,' she said quite simply. 5 When Stephen kissed Mademoiselle Duphot good-bye, she cried, for she felt that something was going that would never come back--irresponsible childhood. It was going, like Mademoiselle Duphot. Kind Mademoiselle Duphot, so foolishly loving, so easily coerced, so glad to be persuaded; so eager to believe that you were doing your best, in the face of the most obvious slacking. Kind Mademoiselle Duphot who smiled when she shouldn't, who laughed when she shouldn't, and now was weeping--but weeping as only a Latin can weep, shedding rivers of tears and sobbing quite loudly. 'Chérie--mon bébé, petit thou!' she was sobbing, as she clung to the angular Stephen. The tears ran down on to Mademoiselle's tippet, and they wet the poor fur which already looked jaded, and the fur clogged together, turning black with those tears, so that Mademoiselle tried to wipe it. But the more she wiped it, the wetter it grew, since her handkerchief only augmented the trouble; nor was Stephen's large handkerchief very dry either, as she found when she started to help. The old station fly that had come out from Malvern, drove up, and the footman seized Mademoiselle's luggage. It was such meagre luggage that he waved back assistance from the driver, and lifted the trunk single-handed. Then Mademoiselle Duphot broke out into English--heaven only knew why, perhaps from emotion. 'It's not farewell, it shall not be for ever--' she sobbed. 'You come, but I feel it, to Paris. We meet once more, Stévenne, my poor little baby, when you grow up bigger, we two meet once more--' And Stephen, already taller than she was, longed to grow small again, just to please Mademoiselle. Then, because the French are a practical people even in moments of real emotion, Mademoiselle found her handbag, and groping in its depths she produced a half sheet of paper. 'The address of my sister in Paris,' she said, snuffling; 'the address of my sister who makes little bags--if you should hear of anyone, Stévenne--any lady who would care to buy one little bag--' 'Yes, yes, I'll remember,' muttered Stephen. At last she was gone; the fly rumbled away down the drive and finally turned the corner. To the end a wet face had been thrust from the window, a wet handkerchief waved despondently at Stephen. The rain must have mingled with Mademoiselle's tears, for the weather had broken and now it was raining. It was surely a desolate day for departure, with the mist closing over the Severn Valley and beginning to creep up the hill-sides... Stephen made her way to the empty schoolroom, empty of all save a general confusion; the confusion that stalks in some people's trail--it had always stalked Mademoiselle Duphot. On the chairs, which stood crooked, lay odds and ends meaning nothing--crumpled paper, a broken shoehorn, a well-worn brown glove that had lost its fellow and likewise two of its buttons. On the table lay a much abused pink blotting-pad, from which Stephen had torn off the corners, unhidden--it was crossed and re-crossed with elegant French script until its scarred face had turned purple. And there stood the bottle of purple ink, half-empty, and green round its neck with dribbles; and a pen with a nib as sharp as a pin point, a thin, peevish nib that jabbed at the paper. Chock-a-block with the bottle of purple ink lay a little piety card of St. Joseph that had evidently slipped out of Mademoiselle's missal--St. Joseph looked very respectable and kind--like the fishmonger in Great Malvern. Stephen picked up the card and stared at St. Joseph; something was written across his corner; looking closer she read the minute handwriting: 'Priez pour ma petite Stévenne.' She put the card away in her desk; the ink and the blotter she hid in the cupboard together with the peevish steel nib that jabbed paper, and that richly deserved cremation. Then she straightened the chairs and threw away the litter, after which she went in search of a duster; one by one she dusted the few remaining volumes in the bookcase, including the Bibliothèque Rose. She arranged her dictation notebooks in a pile with others that were far less accurately written--books of sums, mostly careless and marked with a cross; books of English history, in one of which Stephen had begun to write the history of the horse! Books of geography with Mademoiselle's comments in strong purple ink: 'Grand manque d'attention'. And lastly she collected the torn lesson books that had lain on their backs, on their sides, on their bellies--anyhow, anywhere in drawers or in cupboards, but not very often in the bookcase. For the bookcase was harbouring quite other things, a motley and most unstudious collection; dumb-bells, wooden and iron of various sizes--some Indian clubs, one split off at the handle--cotton laces for gym shoes, the belt of a tunic. And then stable keepsakes, including a headband that Raftery had worn on some special occasion; a miniature horseshoe kicked sky-high by Collins; a half-eaten carrot, now withered and mouldy, and two hunting crops that had both lost their lashes and were waiting to visit the saddler. Stephen considered, rubbing her chin--a habit which by now had become automatic--she finally decided on the ample box-sofa as a seemly receptacle. Remained only the carrot, and she stood for a long time with it clasped in her hand, disturbed and unhappy--this clearing of the decks for stern mental action was certainly very depressing. But at last she threw the thing into the fire, where it shifted distressfully, sizzling and humming. Then she sat down and stared rather grimly at the flames that were burning up Raftery's first carrot. Chapter Seven 1 Soon after the departure of Mademoiselle Duphot, there occurred two distinct innovations at Morton. Miss Puddleton arrived to take possession of the schoolroom, and Sir Philip bought himself a motor-car. The motor was a Panhard, and it caused much excitement in the neighbourhood of Upton-on-Severn. Conservative, suspicious of all innovations, people had abstained from motors in the Midlands, and, incredible as it now seems to look back upon, Sir Philip was regarded as a kind of pioneer. The Panhard was a high-shouldered, snub-nosed abortion with a loud, vulgar voice and an uncertain temper. It suffered from frequent fits of dyspepsia, brought about by an unhealthy spark-plug. Its seats were the very acme of discomfort, its primitive gears unhandy and noisy, but nevertheless it could manage to attain to a speed of about fifteen miles per hour--given always that, by God's good grace and the chauffeur's, it was not in the throes of indigestion. Anna felt doubtful regarding this new purchase. She was one of those women who, having passed forty, were content to go on placidly driving in their broughams, or, in summer, in their charming little French victorias. She detested the look of herself in large goggles, detested being forced to tie on her hat, detested the heavy, mannish coat of rough tweed that Sir Philip insisted she must wear when motoring. Such things were not of her; they offended her sense of the seemly, her preference for soft, clinging garments, her instinct for quiet, rather slow, gentle movements, her love of the feminine and comely. For Anna at forty-four was still slender, and her dark hair, as yet, was untouched with grey, and her blue Irish eyes were as clear and candid as when she had come as a bride to Morton. She was beautiful still, and this fact rejoiced her in secret, because of her husband. Yet Anna did not ignore middle age; she met it half-way with dignity and courage; and now her soft dresses were of reticent colours, and her movements a little more careful than they had been, and her mind more severely disciplined and guarded--too much guarded these days, she was gradually growing less tolerant as her interests narrowed. And the motor, an unimportant thing in itself, served nevertheless to crystallize in Anna a certain tendency towards retrogression, a certain instinctive dislike of the unusual, a certain deep-rooted fear of the unknown. Old Williams was openly disgusted and hostile; he considered the car to be an outrage to his stables--those immaculate stables with their spacious coach-houses, their wide plaits of straw neatly interwoven with yards of red and blue saddler's tape, and their fine stable-yard hitherto kept so spotless. Came the Panhard, and behold, pools of oil on the flagstones, greenish, bad-smelling oil that defied even scouring; and a medley of odd-looking tools in the coach-house, all greasy, all soiling your hands when you touched them; and large tins of what looked like black vaseline; and spare tyres for which nails had been knocked into the woodwork; and a bench with a vice for the motor's insides which were frequently being dissected. From this coach-house the dog-cart had been ruthlessly expelled, and now it must stand chock-a-block with the phaeton, so that room might be made for the garish intruder together with its young body-servant. The young body-servant was known as a chauffeur--he had come down from London and wore clothes made of leather. He talked Cockney, and openly spat before Williams in the coach-house, then rubbed his foot over the spittle. 'I'll have none of yer expectoration 'ere in me coach-house, I tell ee!' bawled Williams, apoplectic with temper. 'Oh, come orf it, do, Grandpa; we're not in the ark!' was how the new blood answered Williams. There was war to the knife between Williams and Burton--Burton who expressed large disdain of the horses. 'Yer time's up now, Grandpa,' he was constantly remarking; 'it's all up with the gees--better learn to be a shovver!' 'Opes I'll die afore ever I demean meself that way, you young blight!' bawled the outraged Williams. Very angry he grew, and his dinner fermented, dilating his stomach and causing discomfort, so that his wife became anxious about him. 'Now don't ee go worryin', Arth-thur,' she coaxed; 'us be old, me and you, and the world be progressin'.' 'It be goin' to the devil, that's what it be doin'!' groaned Williams, rubbing his stomach. To make matters worse, Sir Philip's behaviour was that of a schoolboy with some horrid new contraption. He was caught by his stud-groom lying flat on his back with his feet sticking out beneath the bonnet of the motor, and when he emerged there was soot on his cheek-bones, on his hair, and even on the tip of his nose. He looked terribly sheepish, and as Williams said later to his wife: 'It were somethin' aw-ful to see 'im all mucked up, and 'im such a neat gentleman, and 'im in a filthy old coat of that Burton's, and that Burton agrinnin' at me and just pointin', silent, because the master couldn't see 'im, and the master a-callin' up familiar-like to Burton: "I say! She's got somethin' all wrong with 'er exhaust pipe!" and Burton a-contradictin' the master: "It's that piston," says 'e, as cool as yer please.' Nor was Stephen less thrilled by the car than was her father. Stephen made friends with the execrable Burton, and Burton, who was only too anxious to gain allies, soon started to teach her the parts of the engine; he taught her to drive too, Sir Philip being willing, and off they would go, the three of them together, leaving Williams to glare at the disappearing motor. 'And 'er such a fine 'orse-woman and all!' he would grumble, rubbing a disconsolate chin. It is not too much to say that Williams felt heart-broken, he was like a very unhappy old baby; quite infantile he was in his fits of bad temper, in his mouthings and his grindings of toothless gums. And all about nothing, for Sir Philip and his daughter had the lure of horseflesh in their very bones--and then there was Raftery, and Raft