Consequences

ie To

ndes vacances looked forward to with such frantic eagerness even by the children who liked the convent best.

eeks from Queenie Torrance overwh

enteen by then, and I don't see why I should be

would

enie. "I am quite old enough, and ev

long views of her own reflection in the big window-

ounded, innocent brow, Queenie's slender, but very well-developed figure and the unvarying opaque pallor of her complexion, made her look infinitely nearer mat

, yes?" queried Marthe Poupard, as one resigned to the inc

nie gently, and with the perfect co

ensibly relaxed, and Queenie suddenly became less averse

together unrebuked, in a corner of the great verger where the pupils we

ourney with you," s

the older French nuns. "So it will be much better if we don't talk together on the boat. You know there will

be Madame Hippolyte?" s

Liège was one of the many items in the convent curriculum always sh

, in the linen-room this morning," placid

r attempted to disguise or deny certain practices whi

ter, in other relations and other surroundings, that she dimly realized how much of that streak of extraordinary candour was the direct produ

ys live in L

re. You know, I told y

dered if perhaps you had a h

summer, and generally they send us to the sea

f perhaps the Clares had a country house to which she,

before I come back here. Would you-would you-" She gulped and clasped her hands nervously. Certain of

me one day, if I were allowed to ask you

t me go to tea with any one-unless she knows them herself-

Alex, surprised. "He often goe

could manage it that way,"

cultivating her friendshi

come, Queenie?" brea

ow I have hated all the fuss here, and our never being allowed to speak

ad really care

le-trees with Queenie, enabled Alex to face with some degree of courage the prospect of their approaching separation. She knew that any sign of unhappiness f

stifled in her hard pillow, and felt them to be one more of those degrading weaknesses with whic

ildhood and early girlhood, unhappy though she was, there dwelt within her a curious certainty that

fering, but that she was learning to think of as only a

eeling Alex knew nothing, nor did any of the teaching

he journey to England with Madame Hippolyte, who

e-faced and with encircled eyes, was pitiful in her propitiatory attempts to join

ery happy home. A bad report would follow Alex to England she well

t with a relieved, uncomprehending gratitude that held something abj

f for the uncharitable impulse, felt a certain cont

evive, in the childish sense of security in home surroundings, and would yet b

mselves in the train speeding towards London, Alex wa

and exchanged predictions as to the pleased amazement that would be caused by Sadie

available. But she was merely completely serene in the immutability of her own attractiveness. Queenie did not need to depend upon her looks, which seldom or never varied from soft, colourless opacity and opulence of cont

ing and gestures made her remarkable amongst any assembly of children, but it was at Queen

ueenie as by far the least of the responsibilities on her hands, and did not conceal her satisfaction when Marie and Sadie and Diana we

emanded, turning

name that would not have been permitted to the Clare children, and was, in fa

nce of confusion at Alex, who was

she had reco

y father!"

, a trifle too conspicuously well groomed, a trifle too upright in his bearing, a trifl

waistcoat and grey frock-coat with the malmaison buttonhole yet further, and whipped off his pale g

he had had the pleasure of seeing several times at the Club, but she wondered eagerly if that i

from her body when Queenie said, "Good-bye, Al

te and Queenie's father, the gentleman flourished

udent fellow says his horse won't stand. I

of which seemed incredible to Alex and left her with an instant's absol

ped the arm of her di

x!" she said vigorously.

Isabel sacrifice an hour of her afternoon to waiting at a crowded London stati

d cab of sufficiently cleanly and sober appearance to satisfy her, in which she might proceed herself to the convent branch-house in the east of

er?" cried the nun, in horrified protest at

proved g

window, and with a sigh of infinite relief Madame Hippolyte bad

e stooping shoulders and pale, travel-stained face under the ugly sailor hat of dark blue straw. "We shall hav

ed, and sat squeezin

nd which was so naughty and undutiful. Of course it was unnatural not to be glad

only

rtainly be blamed and ridiculed f

e was so constituted as to

evedon Square. Alex lo

utters and blinds obscured the windows of the first and second floors of many houses, and against one o

dow-boxes of scarlet geraniums. Alex saw that there w

servant's respectful greeting, a slight feeling of excitement possessing her for the first

e drawing-room as she went past. On the second landing, safely past the double door of th

ng over the banis

lo,

she and Barbara looked curiously at one an

had been considered good enough for the journey, when she saw Barbara in her clean w

Alex' superior length of shining wave. Deprived of the supervision of Nurse, with her iron insistence on "fifty strokes of the brush

rbara eyed her in a

more engaging than ever, and Alex felt glad that he had not yet been sent to school, to

stic of a child to whom shyness is unknown, and Alex received the curt, all-obser

m your foreign parts

d charge at first, and as invariably relapsed into her ol

e they been doing to you?

new that grown-up people were always, for some

sly. "An hour on the backboard's what you'll do every day, and bed

said Alex, to

radictory instinct always made her when at home uphold it v

ved, to me," Nurse

the truth, that Alex received more abundant, more wholesome,

, swinging her legs and fidgetting

any prizes, Alex?" sh

with an equal air

I've got a certificate o

t her prizes would impress Barbara very much, and she had foreseen a sort of small ceremony of disp

e was a 'boy of marked abilities and remarkable power of concentration,' and fath

ill he

on Tuesday and he's got a whole

"How can you have holiday

nd Ma'moiselle is going to give me a prize for writing, and

. "When you're all by yourself

ed, but full of irritation at Barbara

not no

been at school yo

. "It's argle-bargle the minute you set foot in the place, Miss Alex. Now you just come along and be made fit to be seen before your p

ion of finger-nails and general, dissatisfied scrutiny that ensued. Alex, in a stiff, clean frock, the counterpart, to her secret vexation, of Barbara's, open-work stockings, and n

ough she had n

had talked about the coming holidays, or had made allusions to events of which Alex knew

Alex futile i

ou at home again. Have you been a good girl this term, and brought back a report that wi

talked to the one remaining visitor

faint, familiar smell of tobacco, and Russia leather, and expensive eau-de-Cologne that seemed to pervade him, striking Alex with a fresh sense of recognition as she rose to receive his kiss. He gr

e will bring back some roses to your chee

awing-room, Sir Francis straightened his own bro

said very decidedly. "I want to s

criticism, and

ed the extent