Page 16 (2/2)

I wondered soh, did they have friends, those other children? If they did, then, while of course I knew better than to envy them their lives when mine was so : their friends Me, I had none, with no brothers or sisters close tothem, well, I was shy Besides, there was another probleht when I was just five years old

It happened one afternoon The ether, so we’d often see our neighbours, either in the square itself or in their grounds at the rear On one side of us lived a fae They spent what see blind arden, and I used to hear them as I sat in the schoolroo, who had bushy grey eyebrows and a habit of picking his nose, carefully studying whatever it was that he’d dug fro it

This particular afternoon Old Mr Fayling left the roo up frorounds of the mansion next door

Daas the family na his scowl They had a high-walled garden, and, despite the trees, bushes, and foliage in full bloom, parts of it were visible froirls outside They were playing hopscotch for a change, and had laid out pall-h it didn’t look as if they were taking it very seriously; probably the two older ones were trying to teach the two younger ones the finer points of the gatails and pink, crinkly dresses, they were calling and laughing, and occasionally I’d hear the sound of an adult voice, a nurseht beneath a low canopy of trees

My sums were left unattended on the table for a moment as I watched them play, until suddenly, al watched, one of the younger ones, a year or so my junior, looked up, saw me at the , and our eyes locked

I gulped, then very hesitantly raised a hand to wave Toher sisters, who gathered round, all four of the their eyes froaze up at the schoolroom here I stood like an exhibit at a htly pink with elow of soht have been friendship

Which evaporated the moment their nurselanced up crossly at ht of ht

That look the nurseain, on the square or in the fields behind us Reed unfortunates? Other nursemaids kept their children away from me like that I never really wondered why I didn’t question it becauseI don’t know, because there was no reason to question it, I suppose; it was just so that happened, and I knew no different

ii

When I was six, Edith presented me with a bundle of pressed clothes and a pair of silver-buckled shoes

I e my new shiny-buckled shoes, a waistcoat and a jacket, and Edith called one of the e of my father, which of course was the idea

Later on, my parents came to see me, and I could have sworn Father’s eyes misted up a little, while Motherthere and then in the nursery, flapping her hand until Edith passed her a handkerchief