I
That winter of Jeremy's eighth birthday was famous for its snow.
Glebeshire has never yielded to the wishes of its children in the matter of snowy Christmases,and Polchester has the reputation of muggy warmth and foggy mists,but here was a year when traditions were fulfilled in the most reckless manner,and all the 1892babies were treated to a present of snow on so fine a scale that certainly for the rest of their days they will go about saying:"Ah,you should see the winters we used to have when we were children."The snow began on the very day after Jeremy's birthday,coming down doubtfully,slowly,little grey flakes against a grey sky,then sparkling white,then vanishing flashes of moisture on a wet,unsympathetic soil.That day the snow did not lie;and for a week it did not come again;then with a whirl it seized the land,and for two days and nights did not loosen its grip.From the nursery windows the children watched it,their noses making little rings on the window-pane,their delighted eyes snatching fascinating glimpses of figures tossed through the storm,cabs beating their way,the rabbit-skin man,the milkman,the postman,brave adventurers all,fighting,as it seemed,for their very lives.
For two days the children did not leave the house,and the natural result of that was that on the second afternoon tempers were,like so many dogs,straining,tugging,pulling at their chains.
It could not be denied that Jeremy had been tiresome to everyone since the afternoon when he had heard the news of his going to school next September.It had seemed to him a tremendous event,the Beginning of the End.To the others,who lived in the immediate present,it was a crisis so remote as scarcely to count at all.Mary would have liked to be sentimental about it,but from this she was sternly prevented.There was then nothing more to be said.
Jeremy was suddenly isolated from them all.His destiny was peculiar.They were girls,he was a boy.They understood neither his fears nor his ambitions;he needed terribly a companion.The snow,shutting them in,laughed at their struggles against monotony.The nursery clock struck three and they realised that two whole hours must pass before the next meal.Mary,her nose red from pressing on the window-pane,her eyes gazing through her huge spectacles wistfully at Jeremy,longed to suggest that she should read aloud to him.She knew that he hated it;she pretended to herself that she did not know.
Jeremy stared desperately at Helen who was sitting,dignified and collected,in the wicker chair hemming a minute handkerchief.
"We might play Pirates,"Jeremy said with a little cough,the better to secure her attention.There was no answer.
"Or there's the hut in the wood--if anyone likes it better,"he added politely.He did not know what was the matter.Had the Jampot not told him about school he would at this very moment be playing most happily with his village.It spread out there before him on the nursery floor,the Noah family engaged upon tea in the orchard,the butcher staring with fixed gaze from the door of his shop,three cows and a sheep absorbed in the architecture of the church.
He sighed,then said again:"Perhaps Pirates would be better."Still Helen did not reply.He abandoned the attempted control of his passions.
"It's very rude,"he said,"not to answer when gentlemen speak to you.""I don't see any gentlemen,"answered Helen quietly,without raising her eyes,which was,as she knew,a provoking habit.
"Yes,you do,"almost screamed Jeremy."I'm one.""You're not,"continued Helen;"you're only eight.Gentlemen must be over twenty like Father or Mr.Jellybrand.""I hate Mr.Jellybrand and I hate you,"replied Jeremy.
"I don't care,"said Helen.
"Yes,you do,"said Jeremy,then suddenly,as though even a good quarrel were not worth while on this heavily burdened afternoon,he said gently:"You might play Pirates,Helen.You can be Sir Roger.""I've got this to finish."
"It's a dirty old thing,"continued Jeremy,pursuing an argument,"and it'll be dirtier soon,and the Jampot says you do all the stitches wrong.I wish I was at school.""I wish you were,"said Helen.
There was a pause after this.Jeremy went sadly back to his window-seat.Mary felt that her moment had arrived.Sniffing,as was her habit when she wanted something very badly,she said in a voice that was little more than a whisper:
"It would be fun,wouldn't it,perhaps if I read something,Jeremy?"Jeremy was a gentleman,although he was only eight.He looked at her and saw behind the spectacles eyes beseeching his permission.
"Well,it wouldn't be much fun,"he said,"but it's all beastly this afternoon,anyway.""Can I sit on the window too?"asked Mary.
"Not too close,because it tickles my ear,but you can if you like."She hurried across to the bookshelf."There's 'Stumps'and 'Rags and Tatters,'and 'Engel the Fearless,'and 'Herr Baby'and 'Alice'and--"
"'Alice'is best,"said Jeremy,sighing."You know it better than the others."He curled himself into a corner of the window-seat.
From his position there he had a fine view.Immediately below him was the garden,white and grey under the grey sky,the broken fountain standing up like a snow man in the middle of it.The snow had ceased to fall and a great stillness held the world.
Beyond the little iron gate of the garden that always sneezed "Tishoo"when you closed it,was the top of Orange Street;then down the hill on the right was the tower of his father's church;exactly opposite the gate was the road that led to the Orchards,and on the right of that was the Polchester High School for Young Ladies,held in great contempt by Jeremy,the more that Helen would shortly be a day-boarder there,would scream with the other girls,and,worst of all,would soon be seen walking with her arm round another girl's neck,chattering and eating sweets.
The whole world seemed deserted.No colour,no movement,no sound.
