Sinister Street, vol. 1

earnt the preceding term. He now abandoned the scarlet book of Elementary Latin for Henry's Latin Primer, which began with 'Balbus was buildin

d to wear the tweed. Avery, of course, was very witty at his expense and for a long time Michael was known as 'strawberry-bags,' until the joke palled. Michael had barely lived down the Harris tweed, when Avery discovered, while they were changing into football shorts, that Michael wore combinations instead of pants and vest. Combinations were held to be the depth of effeminacy, and Avery often enquired when Michael was going to appear in petticoats and stays. Michael spoke to Miss Carthew about these combinations which at the very moment of purchase he had feared, but Miss Carthew insisted that they were much healthier than the modish pants and vest, an

Carthew that signs

king of the form's ea

s away," he

e bluntly, "and who

rly choked

ss, I mean," he added, desperatel

aid Mr. Macr

k. Mr. Macrae, too, made cruel use of his advantage, for whenever Michael tripped over an irregular verb, Mr. Macrae would address to the ceiling in his soft unpleasant voice sarcastic remarks about governesses, while every Monday mo

," Michael

t was he?" Ju

entleman,"

er Michael's cockiness, so witty that Michael was goaded i

is your fath

n uncle who's a millionaire, and my

. To be sure Mr. Wagstaff, the cherub-faced master of the Lower Fifth, complained of his continually shifting position from one end of the class to the other; but Michael justified himself and incidentally somewhat annoyed Mr. Wagstaff by coming out head boy in the Christmas examinations. Meanwhile, if he found Greek irregular verbs and Latin gender rhymes tiresome, Michael read unceasingly at home, preferably books that encouraged the private schoolboy's instinct to take sides. Michael was for the Trojans against the Greeks, partly on account of the Greek verbs, but principally because he once had a straw hat inscribed H.M.S. Hector. He was also for the Lancastrians against the Yorkists, and, of course, for the Jacobites against the Hanoverians

of joy that once he used to feel when he saw her cab rounding the corner. He was shy of his mother, and she for her part seemed shy of hi

ural," Miss Car

," Mrs. Fane agreed vaguely. "But

inclination to differentiate himself from the mass. At Randell's, where there was one way only of thinking and behaving and speaking, it would have been grossly coc

s are funny," s

e, "if I wore a suit like that, al

e to be noticed," Mrs

beastly," Mich

hat horrid word," his moth

was Michael's inv

dreaded. Michael would blush and turn away, abashed; while Stella's company would be demanded by his

chool, Michael thought that not only was she none the better for the experience, but he was even inclined to suggest that she was very much the worse. Tiresome little girl friends came to tea sometimes and altered Michael's arrangements; and when they came they used to giggle in corners and Stella used to show off detestably. Once Michael was so much vexed by a certain Dorothy that he kissed her spitefully, and a commotion ensued from the middle of

" Miss Carthew said at last. "You are

kiss her," he cr

t all the worse?" Mi

feeling powerless to contend wi

or General Mace or Henry V wouldn't have kissed

"if rotten little girls came

d 'rotten' used in front

hen," Michael propo

you couldn't have the Macalisters to tea and you vented your anger

me to tea, when you told me I could have the Macalister

ay to girls," gener

they do nowaday

. I'm sorry you won't see you're in th

n shrugged h

other to let Nancy stay here next Christma

ly had to la

kissing is fearful rot-I mean frightfully stupid. But I

once, and, as Michael respected her enough to dislike annoying her, he found it perfectly eas

three slaves in perpetual attendance. It became the fashion to forsake the school field for the more adventurous wasteland of the neighbourhood. At the end of Carlington Road itself still existed what was practically open country as far as it lasted. There were elm-trees and declivities and broken hedges and the excavated hollows of deserted gravel-pits. There was an attractive zigzag boundary fen

fire on the warm evenings of summer, while silhouetted against the blue sky above stood the minor Macalister and the junior Nortons in ceaseless vigilance. The bait held out to these sentries, who sometimes mutinied, was their equipment with swords, guns, pistols, shields, bows, arrows and breastplates. So heavily and decoratively armed a

chael one Saturday afternoon, when the sun blazed down u

s," Nort

," Michael continued, looking

k' in distinction to his brother Hugh always c

between us. I heard my mater tell a

Smack and Mac, because neither was allowed to claim prio

like twins coming, because in Ally Sl

ldren at all," said Norton in order still more

id Michael. "There's som

r's room which I believe w

ved. "Only it's difficult to find the places and

ich the four boys shook their heads very wis

forgetting the debate. "

ns," s

hes?" asked Sm

Arabs. Charge,"

stick, in the rending of cad's collar and cad's belt, and in the final defeat of t

ecame the rage, the most delightful occupation of Michael and his friends was that of poring over the columns of this medium of barter in order to read of X.Y.Z. in Northumberland who was willing to exchange five Buff Orpingtons, a suit, a tennis racket and Cowper's Poems for a mechanical organ or a 5 ft. by 4 ft. greenhouse. All the romance of commerce was to be found in The Exchange and Mart together with practical hints on the moulting of canaries or red mange in collies. Cricket was in the same way made a mathematical abstraction of decimals and initials and averages and records. All sorts of periodicals were taken in-Cricket, The Cricketer, Cricketing amongst many others. From an exact perusal of these, Michael and the Macalisters knew that Streatham could beat Hampstead and were convinced of the superiority o

er it smashed was a contest long talked of in circles where Conquerors were played. Michael much regretted that the etiquette of the Lent term, which substituted peg-tops for Conquerors, should prevent his chestnut reaching four figures. He knew that next autumn term, if all fell out as planned, he would be at St. James' School itself, where Conquerors and tops and marbles were never

view of Stella and was able sincerely to admit that, compared with many other little girls of the neighbourhood, Stella was fairly pretty. He decided that it would be a good thing for Norton to marry her. He told Norton that there seemed no reason why he and Stella should not come together in affection, and Norton said that, if Michael thought he should, he was perfectly willing to marry Stella, when he was gro

over his forehead with golden lights and shadows and curled in bunches by his ears. A new Eton suit well became him, and his mother said how charming he looked. Michael deplored good looks in boys, but he managed to endure the possession of them during the little space that remained before the Lent term

itting beside his mother scented sweetly with delicious perfumes and very silky to the touch. They drove past Kensington Gardens all dripping with January rains, past Hyde Park and the Albert Memorial, past the barracks of the Household Cavalry, past Hyde Park Corner and the Duke of Wellington's house. They dashed along with a jingle and a rattle over the slow old omni

ship in?" as

upstairs, ma'am,"

white wigs. Presently they stood in the largest room Michael had ever entered, a still white room full of golden furniture. Michael had barely recovered his breath from astonishment at the size of the room, when he saw another room round the corne

he boy?" the g

very funnily, as if she were just

his is

id the man, "it makes

him before. He was sure he had seen him somewhere. But every time just as he had almost re

the gentleman, "you

Charles," sa

ise as all that," la

as a funny laugh, mo

d Saxby," sa

is Saxby," Mic

Lord Saxby, "I

Charles Micha

ery strange thing

n name. But nobody at our school knows I'm called Saxby except a boy called Buckley who's an awful beast. We don't tell our Christian names, you know. If a ch

inding it ver

bout this wonderful scho

ue justice was done to the Macalister twins and to

o Eton, you know," declared Lord S

right, when you said St. Ja

hed. "Well, Valérie-not again.

said Mrs. Fane softly. "Photographs are so unsat

arrack of a house. If you only knew how I

el wondered what dinner was like in this h

you back in the phae

. No more rules

ut don't-not again, please. I c

axby turned

ng man, what do

and an unused set of

what? Sia

aughed Michael, "S

ord Saxby. "Right-an

two days afterwards dozens of boxes of all kinds of soldiers arrived, and unused sets not me

at spiffing boxes! I say, he is a decent chap, isn't

me

y, can't I?" begged Michael. "He'll t

chael," sai

inky," said Michael in a burs

," said his