This protection, indeed, produced as much water as any educational exhortations. Out of school hours she taught Susie every game she knew and some she didn’t; instructed her in dressing and undressing dolls; delivered her from the Italian greyhound; helped her to burn her cheeks cooking cocoanut ice and toffee; and prick her fingers sewing at dolls’ nightgowns. When Susie was put in the corner, June had invariably to be put in the opposite corner—so loyal was she to her ‘lame duck.’ The ‘good woman’ watched the experiment with equanimity—it would help June not to be selfish. Old Jolyon, with innate sagacity, waited for its inevitable end; he had no belief in ‘lame ducks.’
The end came stealthily with every ounce of weight that Susie Betters put on from the dinners and teas she ate, and every deepening of the contempt which familiarity slowly bred in her. She had ceased to exude water, her cheeks were becoming pink, and she wore a sky blue ribbon in hair no longer unwashed. In fact she had come to be ‘twice the child’; and she no longer excited June’s compassion. The habit of protection, however, lasted till the middle of November. It vanished in one day.
Susie had a doll, given her by June, which, following the law of compensation—advocated by the then fashionable philosopher Mr. Emerson—she treated in the manner in which she herself was treated, possessing its soul, placing its body in corners, and harassing it over her knee for its own good. With the increase of adipose, her treatment of the doll became more and more protective, if not arbitrary. It was not long before this treatment excited June’s concern, and the doll began to seem to her a ‘lame duck.’
One Saturday morning when the doll had been whipped and put first in one corner and then in another, her feelings became too much for her.
“You oughtn’t to treat poor Amy like that, Susie, it’s a shame!”
Susie answered:
“Why not? She’s my doll!”
“Well, you shan’t!” said June. “So there!”
“I will,” said Susie, and promptly turned up the doll’s petticoats.
June’s eyes grew very blue, her hair seemed to shine.
“If you whip her,” she said, “I’ll whip you.”
“Will you?” said Susie. “I’m bigger than you.”
She laid the doll over her knee.
“Stop!” said June.
“I won’t!” said Susie.
June rushed at her. The doll fell to the floor, and the two children struggled. Susie had so far profited by six weeks of good feeding that she was the stronger; but she had not June’s spirit. The combat, short and sharp, ended with June sitting on her chest. Susie sobbed, wriggled and scratched. June sat tighter.
“Promise not to whip her any more.”
“Shan’t!”
“Then I shall sit here till you do.”
Susie began to scream. June covered her mouth with a hand. Susie bit it.
The screams had attracted old Jolyon, who was in his dressing-room. The sight when he entered the room was precisely that which he had been expecting for some time.
“That’ll do,” he said. “Get up, June! Now, what’s it all about?”
June, who had picked up the doll, stood crimson and defiant, Susie stood whimpering and overawed.
“What’s that mark on your hand?” said old Jolyon to his grand-daughter.
“She shan’t whip Amy,” said June; “I won’t have it!”
“Did you bite her?” said old Jolyon to Susie.
Susie sobbed.
The instinct to protect Susie caused June to say automatically:
“I began it, because she’s not to whip Amy.”
Susie blurted:
“I wasn’t going to until she told me not.”
“That’ll do,” said old Jolyon. “Give me the doll. Go and get your hand bathed, June. And you,” he added to Susie, “go home for dinner.”
The children went; Susie, sniffing, June, very red.
Old Jolyon was left with the doll, a furbelowed affair in wax—which is indeed more inviting to chastisement than china—whose round blue eyes expressed nothing but indifference. Rum little toads, children! Fancy getting into a fantod over a bit of wax! Well, well—! Another lame duck, he supposed. He rearranged the doll’s petticoats, and his eyes twinkled. There was the end of Susie Betters! And just as well!
Placing the doll on the table he descended slowly to the dining-room, pondering on the rumness of little toads.
June came to lunch with her hand bound up. She would not eat her pudding, and could be heard whispering to François that it was to be saved for Susie.
When told later that Susie was not to come any more, but to go to school again, she was silent; and nobody could tell what she was feeling. It was the impression of old Jolyon, however, that she was not unhappy. He had always known how it would be.
The last state of Susie Betters was worse than the first. Wild animals that are captured and regain their liberty receive but a poor welcome from their fellows. So with June’s past lame duck. She was soon as thin, pinched and tearful as ever; but, as June never saw her, she remained in memory pink and plump, with a sky blue ribbon, no longer worthy of compassion. Besides, June had found a new lame duck, on organ-grinder’s wife with a baby in her arms.
DOG AT TIMOTHY’S, 1878
Mrs. Septimus Small, known in the Forsyte family as Aunt Juley, returning from service at St. Barnabas’, Bayswater, on a Sunday morning in the Spring of 1878, took by force of habit the path which led her into the then somewhat undeveloped gardens of Kensington. The Reverend Thomas Scoles had been wittier than usual, and she had the longing to stretch her legs, which was the almost invariable effect of his ‘nice’ sermons. While she walked, in violet silk under a black mantle, with very short steps—skirts being extremely narrow in that year of grace—she was thinking of dear Hester and what a pity it was that she always had such a headache on Sunday mornings—the sermon would have done her so much good! For now that dear Ann was unable to stand the fatigue of service, she did feel that Hester ought to make a point of being well enough to go to church. What dear Mr. Scoles had said had been so helpful—about the lilies of the fields never attempting to improve their figures, and yet, about ladies of fashion in all their glory never being attired like one of them. He had undoubtedly meant ‘bustles’—so witty—and Hester would have enjoyed hearing it, because only yesterday, when they had been talking about the Grecian bend, Emily had come in with dear James and said that the revival of crinolines was only a question of time and that she personally intended to be in the fashion the moment there was any sign of it. Dear Ann had been rather severe with her; and James had said he didn’t know what was the use of them. Of course, crinolines did take up a great deal of room, and a ‘bustle,’ though it was warmer, did not. But Hester had said they were both such a bore, she didn’t see why they were wanted; and now Mr. Scoles had said it too. She must really think about it, if Mr. Scoles thought they were bad for the soul; he always said something that one had to think about afterwards. He would be SO good for Hester! And she stood a minute looking out over the grass.
Dear, dear! That little white dog was running about a great deal. Was it lost? Backwards and forwards, round and round! What they called—she believed—a Pomeranian, quite a new kind of dog. And, seeing a bench, Mrs. Septimus Small bent, with a little backward heave to save her ‘bustle,’ and sat down to watch what was the matter with the white dog. The sun, flaring out between two Spring clouds, fell on her face, transfiguring the pouting puffs of flesh, which seemed trying to burst their way through the network of her veil. Her eyes, of a Forsyte grey, lingered on the dog with the greater pertinacity in that of late—owing to poor Tommy’s (their cat’s) disappearance, very mysterious—she suspected the sweep—there had been nothing but ‘Polly’ at Timothy’s to lavish her affection on. This dog was draggled and dirty, as if it had been out all night, but it had a dear little pointed nose. She thought, too, that it seemed to be noticing her, and at once had a swelling-up sensation underneath her corsets. Almost as if aware of this, the dog came sidling, and sat down on its haunches in the grass, as though trying to make up its mind about her. Aunt Juley pursed her lips in the endeavour to emit a whistle. The veil prevented this, but she held out her gloved hand. “Come, little dog—nice little dog!” It seemed to her dear heart that the little dog sighed as it sat there, as if relieved that at last someone had taken notice of it. But it did not approach. The tip of its bushy tail quivered, however, and Aunt Juley redoubled the suavity of her voice: “Nice little fellow—come then!”