Jeremy

clergymen. I don't believe that we were any the worse for that, and to such heroines as Miss Jane Maple, Miss Mary Trefusis and old Miss Jessamin Trenchard, I here publicly acknowledge deep and lasting debt-but it did make our life a little monotonous, a li

eremy was, of course-putting Miss Jones, who was a g

se ordinary human conceit, of which every living being has his or her share. I am

. In any case, it is certain that she was spoiled when she was a little girl, and because she was delicate and

d Aunt Amy wore coloured ribbons and went to balls and made eyes behind her fan for season after season. Then as time passed she was compelled by her mirror to realise that she was not quite so young as she had once been, so she hurriedly invented a thrilling past history for herself, alluding to affair after affair that had come to nothing only because she herself had ruthlessly slain them, and dressing herself more reasonably, but with little signs and hints, in the shape of chains and coloured bows and rings, tha

state; and her brother-in-law she did not like because he always behaved as though she were one of a vast public of elderly ladies who were useful for helping in clerical displays, but were otherwise non-existent. Then she hated children, so that she really often wondered why

d. She had felt always in Jeremy an obstinate dislike of her, and as he had seemed to her neither a very clever nor intelligent child she had consoled herself very easily with the thought that he did not like her simply because he was stupid. So it had been until this year, and then suddenly they had been flung into sh

t her, he insulted her by walking into her bedroom with his muddy feet and then pretending that he hadn't known that it was her bedroom, regarding her through his hair with an ironical and malicious glance, barking suddenly when she made some statement as though he enjoyed immensely an excellent joke, but, above all, despising her, s

would not come when she called, by her alone he would not be cajoled, even though she offered him sugary tea, his deadliest temptation. No, he sat and loo

I only had the children to myself," she would say, "I would improve their manners in many ways. Poor Alice-!" Then suddenly she did have them. At the beginning of May Mr. Co

situation. Then turning to Mary he added: "We'll pretend to do

and the bootboy all gave notice, and Mrs. Cole was only able to keep them (on her return) by raising the wages of all of them. Jordan, who was an old man with a long white beard, said to her when she advised him to plant pinks where he had planted tulips and tulips where he had planted pinks, and further inquired w

o one ain't rude to another"-out of whi

old age because she must earn her living-a stupid, sentimental, cowed, old woman at whom the children laughed. She found now that the children instead of laughing at her laughed with her, formed a phal

ss Jones? Not quite the simplest way, surely... I

ve them a history lesson yourself, Miss Trefusis.

urriedly, "but, speaking generally, I am afra

eakly. "The children would be glad, I know, to have

iggled, tried to turn the gi

aid Aunt Am

, always Jeremy's faithful ally, "a

very different from that earlier teasing of Miss Jones. That had sprung from a sudden delicious discovery of power, and had been directed against

He was older than that now-he was simply reserved and silent, watching her with his lar

ed at him; it seemed that she would do anything could she only win from him an acknowledgment

ked little boy, Jeremy. Do you know

Aunt

hom nobody likes and nobody trusts. Do yo

n't c

n't Care.' I shall have to pun

I done th

ike that. Is that the way

Aunt

o your mother like that, you must

Aunt

, the

, with its horrid red smile, and this had terrified him... He had begun to burn it, and the nurse had caught him and slapped him. He had begun to cut it with scissors, and when the sawdust flowed he was more terrified than ever. But that doll was quite different from Aunt Amy. He was not terrified of her at

cobbled street, one may still to-day look through the open door, down the dusky line of the little hall, out into the swimming colour of the garden beyond. In these little gardens, what did not grow? Hollyhocks, pinks, tulips, nasturtiums, pansies, lilies of the valley, roses, honeysuckle, sweet-williams, stocks-I remember them all at their different seasons in that muddled, absurd profusion. I can smell them now, can see them in their fluttering colours, the great grey wall of the Cathedral, with its high carved door and watching saints behind me, the sun beating on to the cobbles, the muffled beat of the summer day, the sleepy noises of the town, the pigeons cutting the thin, papery blue into arcs and curves and circles, the little lattice-windowed houses, with crooked chimneys and shining doors, smiling down upon me. I can smell, too, that especial smell that belonged to those summer hours, a smell of dri

nt out her invitations only three days before the great event, because the summer had come with so fine a rush. "Master Jere

ering shower out of the pantry window on to the bed nearest the garden wall. Upon this morning someone called him; he turned his head; the water still flowed, and Aunt Amy, hatless and defenceless, received it as it tumbled with that sudden rush which always seizes a watering-can at its last gasp. Jeremy was banished into his bedroom, where he employed the sunny morning in drawing pictures of Aunt Amy as a witch upon the wallpaper. For doing this he

ty-nine." At quarter past three Jeremy might have been seen sitting up very straight in the jingle, his face crimson from washing and temper. He was we

en trees swimming in the sun, he turned his mind to the party. What games would they play? Who would be there? What would there be for tea? He felt creeping over him the stiff shyness that always comes when one is approaching a party, and he wished that the first handshaking and the first plunge into the stares of the critical guests might be over. But he did not really care. His hatre

had not seen the Dean's Ernest for nearly three months, for the very good reason that that gentleman had been experiencing his first term at his private school. Last year young Ernest and Jeremy had been, on the whole, friendly, although Ernest, who was nine, and strong for his age, had alwa

er little girls stared and giggled, moved forward and then backward again, until suddenly Canon Lasker's Emily, who was fifteen and had such long legs tha

t and make friends." Which so deeply infuriated him that h

voice behind him sai

only stand there, his cheeks flushed, aware that Ernest had grown and grown during those three months, that he wore a straw hat with a b

" said

the new Erne

ng p

. He felt a sudden strange impulse of family affection. He would like to have gathered behind him his father and mother, Mary, Helen, Hamlet, Uncle Samuel-yes, and even Aunt Amy, and to have advanced not only upon Ernest, but upon the w

d that before he left that ho

ailor suit without guile or malice, swept him into an "I spy" party composed for

y, lost in the contemplation of his vengeance, forgot his game, and was taken prisoner with the greatest of ease. He did not care. The afternoon was spoilt for him. He was not even hungry. Why could he not go

aid Miss Maddison, "it

t from wall to wall; the sunlight played in pools and splashes upon the carpet and the flowers and the pictures. There was every sort of thing to eat-thin bread-and-butter rolled up into little curly

rl the sugar, Jeremy-remember your manners." or "Not so big a piece, Jeremy." But now-he did not know... She was one of the family, and he felt as though the Dean's Ernest had scorned her as well as himself

before his departure to school, as a keepsake. How he wished that he had kept them! He would never give Ernest anything again except blows. Mary might

ipe your mouth,

yed at

I

of the faintest blue seemed, with gentle approval, to bless the quiet town fading into dusk beneath it. Over the centre of the lawn the sun was still shining, and there it was warm and light. But from every side the shadows stealthily crept forward. A group of children played against the g

s; that only yesterday he had been a baby, and that he would never be a baby again. He did not feel his independence-he felt only inclined to tears and a longing, that he would never, never confess, even to himself, that someone should come and comfort him! Nevertheless, even at this very moment, although he did not know it, he, a free, independent man, was facing the world for the first time on his own leg

coming to pl

e," he answe

She paused, and added: "Would

t he was comforted by her, determined, a

hat melancholy stare through her large spectacles t

ickles, and I can't get at it-it's the back of my l

not thought about him at all-enough for her that Jer

eck and his thin leggy body that Jeremy found especially offens

" said

" said

said Ernest. "Why can't they hav

hing. "At our school," said Ernest, "we're very

school," said Jeremy, b

rprised by this; he had not expect

Cole," he said, "n

ds who went to school. All he said, however, breat

sight of Mary's timorous anxiety, however, reassured him, and he continued: "It's all right for you, this sort of thing.

of the Reverend Dean. "Your school isn't much anyway, I expect, and I'm goi

s sisters, but his gentlemanly courtesy restrained him.

g over me-'Now, Jeremy dear-' 'Blow your nose, Jeremy dear-' 'Wipe your feet, Jeremy dear.' Look at the things she

n chafing under her restraint, combating her commands, defying her orders. He had been seeing her as everything that the Dean's Ernest had but now been calling her. Now he

could hear his words; then he

ew at that time nothing of the science of fighting. The Dean's Ernest, in spite

this realisation filled him with joy and happiness. He had seized Ernest by his long yellow neck, and, with his other hand, he struck at eyes and cheeks and nose. He did not secure much purchase for his blows because their bodies were very close against one another, but he fe

h of his body was alarmed, and that alarm prevented the freedom of his limbs. Then when he felt the blood from his nose trickle on to his cheek his r

bitten me! Take him

d and soiled, the buttons of his tunic torn, his stocking down, and his legs already di

m as it pleased. Authority soon arrived, and there were, of course, many cries and exclamations. Ernest was l

as. She had always said that his mother spoiled him, and here were the fruits of that foolishness. How could she ever say enough to Miss Maddison? Her delightful

n's sitting-room for a cleaned and chastened Jeremy, Mary

rnest because he said

! Nonsens

st said horrid things about y

e? What

hild, and intent now only upon Jeremy's reputation-"and wore u

o unexpectedly touched. She would have greatly preferred not to be touched, but there it was, she could not help herself. She did not know that, in all her life befo

h his long yellow neck and watery eyes! How dared he say such thin

en the Dean's Ernest howling and kicking on the ground; he had soiled his straw hat for him, dirtied his stiff white collar for him, and made

-"Nothing, I assure you, nothing. Boys w

she knew what she should say. She should be very angry, disgusted, ashamed. She could not be any of these things. Th

him. As the old fat pony jogged along, as the evening colours of

His body pressed closer to Aunt Amy's, leaned

round him-so, holding him, she stared