第1章 THE BIRTHDAY(1)

I

About thirty years ago there was at the top of the right-hand side of Orange Street,in Polchester,a large stone house.I say "was";the shell of it is still there,and the people who now live in it are quite unaware,I suppose,that anything has happened to the inside of it,except that they are certainly assured that their furniture is vastly superior to the furniture of their predecessors.

They have a gramophone,a pianola,and a lift to bring the plates from the kitchen into the dining-room,and a small motor garage at the back where the old pump used to be,and a very modern rock garden where once was the pond with the fountain that never worked.

Let them cherish their satisfaction.No one grudges it to them.The Coles were,by modern standards,old-fashioned people,and the Stone House was an old-fashioned house.

Young Jeremy Cole was born there in the year 1884,very early in the morning of December 8th.He was still there very early in the morning of December 8th,1892.He was sitting up in bed.The cuckoo clock had just struck five,and he was aware that he was,at this very moment,for the first time in his life,eight years old.He had gone to bed at eight o'clock on the preceding evening with the choking consciousness that he would awake in the morning a different creature.Although he had slept,there had permeated the texture of his dreams that same choking excitement,and now,wide awake,as though he had asked the cuckoo to call him in order that he might not be late for the great occasion,he stared into the black distance of his bedroom and reflected,with a beating heart,upon the great event.He was eight years old,and he had as much right now to the nursery arm-chair with a hole in it as Helen had.

That was his first definite realisation of approaching triumph.

Throughout the whole of his seventh year he had fought with Helen,who was most unjustly a year older than he and persistently proud of that injustice,as to his right to use the wicker arm-chair whensoever it pleased him.So destructive of the general peace of the house had these incessant battles been,so unavailing the suggestions of elderly relations that gentlemen always yielded to ladies,that a compromise had been arrived at.When Jeremy was eight he should have equal rights with Helen.Well and good.Jeremy had yielded to that.It was the only decent chair in the nursery.Into the place where the wicker,yielding to rude and impulsive pressure,had fallen away,one's body might be most happily fitted.It was of exactly the right height;it made the handsomest creaking noises when one rocked in it--and,in any case,Helen was only a girl.

But the sense of his triumph had not yet fully descended upon him.

As he sat up in bed,yawning,with a tickle in the middle of his back and his throat very dry;he was disappointingly aware that he was still the same Jeremy of yesterday.He did not know what it was exactly that he had expected,but he did not feel at present that confident proud glory for which he had been prepared.Perhaps it was too early.

He turned round,curled his head into his arm,and with a half-muttered,half-dreamt statement about the wicker chair,he was once again asleep.

II

He awoke to the customary sound of the bath water running into the bath.His room was flooded with sunshine,and old Jampot,the nurse (her name was Mrs.Preston and her shape was Jampot),was saying as usual:"Now,Master Jeremy,eight o'clock;no lying in bed--out--you get--bath--ready."He stared at her,blinking.

"You should say 'Many Happy Returns of the Day,Master Jeremy,'"he remarked.Then suddenly,with a leap,he was out of bed,had crossed the floor,pushed back the nursery door,and was sitting in the wicker arm-chair,his naked feet kicking a triumphant dance.

"Helen!Helen!"he called."I'm in the chair."No sound.

"I'm eight,"he shouted,"and I'm in the chair."Mrs.Preston,breathless and exclaiming,hurried across to him.

"Oh,you naughty boy .death of cold .in your nightshirt.""I'm eight,"he said,looking at her scornfully,"and I can sit here as long as I please."Helen,her pigtails flapping on either shoulder,her nose red,as it always was early in the morning,appeared at the opposite end of the nursery.

"Nurse,he mustn't,must he?Tell him not to.I don't care how old you are.It's my chair.Mother said--""No,she didn't.Mother said--"

"Yes,she did.Mother said--"

"Mother said that when--"

"Oh,you story.You know that Mother said--"Then suddenly a new,stiffening,trusting dignity filled him,as though he had with a turn of the head discovered himself in golden armour.

He was above this vulgar wrangling now.That was for girls.He was superior to them all.He got down from the chair and stood,his head up,on the old Turkey rug (red with yellow cockatoos)in front of the roaring fire.

"You may have your old chair,"he said to Helen."I'm eight now,and I don't want it any more .although if I do want it I shall have it,"he added.

He was a small,square boy with a pug-nosed face.His hair was light brown,thin and stiff,so that it was difficult to brush,and although you watered it,stood up in unexpected places and stared at you.His eyes were good,dark brown and large,but he was in no way handsome;his neck,his nose ridiculous.His mouth was too large,and his chin stuck out like a hammer.

He was,plainly,obstinate and possibly sulky,although when he smiled his whole face was lighted with humour.Helen was the only beautiful Cole child,and she was abundantly aware of that fact.The Coles had never been a good-looking family.

He stood in front of the fireplace now as he had seen his father do,his short legs apart,his head up,and his hands behind his back.