CONSEQUENCES

By

E.M. DELAFIELD

New York

ALFRED A. KNOPF

MCMXIX

Dedicated to

M.P.P.

and, in spite of air-raids, to the

pleasant memory of our winter

in London, 1917-1918

CONTENTS

BOOK I
I THE GAME OF CONSEQUENCES
II SCHOOL
III QUEENIE TORRANCE
IV HOLIDAYS
V OTHER PEOPLE
VI THE END OF AN ERA
VII LONDON SEASON
VIII GOLDSTEIN AND QUEENIE
IX SCOTLAND
X NOEL
XI ENGAGEMENT OF MARRIAGE
XII CHRISTMAS PANTOMIME
XIII DECISION
XIV BARBARA
XV DIAMOND JUBILEE
XVI MOTHER GERTRUDE
XVII LAWN-TENNIS
XVIII CRISIS

BOOK II
XIX BELGIUM
XX AFTERMATH
XXI FATHER FARRELL
XXII ROME
XXIII N.W.
XXIV ALL OF THEM
XXV VIOLET
XXVI AUGUST
XXVII THE EMBEZZLEMENT
XXVIII CEDRIC
XXIX FORGIVENESS
XXX EPITAPH

Book I

I

The Game of Consequences

The firelight flickered on the nursery wall, and the children sat round the table, learning the new game which the nursery-maid said they would like ever so, directly they understood it.

"I understand it already," said Alex, the eldest, tossing her head proudly. "Look, Barbara, you fold the piece of paper like this, and then give it to Cedric, because he's next to you, and I give mine to you, and Emily gives hers to me. That's right, isn't it, Emily?"

"Quite right, Miss Alex; what a clever girl, to be sure. Here, Master Baby, you can play with me. You're too little to do it all by yourself."

"He isn't Baby any more. We've got to call him Archie now. The new little sister is Baby," said Alex dictatorially.

She liked always to be the one to give information, and Emily had only been with them a little while. The children's own nurse would have told her to mind her own business, or to wait till she was asked, before teaching her grandmother, but Emily said complacently:

"To be sure, Miss Alex! and such a big boy as Master Archie is, too. Now you all write down a name of a gentleman."

"What gentleman?" asked Cedric judicially. He was a little boy of eight, with serious grey eyes and a good deal of dignity.

"Why, any gentleman. Some one you all know."

"I know, I know."

Alex, always the most easily excited of them all, scribbled on her piece of paper and began to bounce up and down on her chair.

"Hurry up, Barbara. You're so slow."

"I don't know who to put."

Alex began to whisper, and Barbara at once said:

"Nurse doesn't allow us to whisper. It's bad manners."

"You horrid little prig!"

Alex was furious. Barbara's priggishness always put her into a