Sleep in Peace by Phyllis Bentley Page B

spoiled in that kind of way, by some scolding from Gwen. They were not spoiled by Laura’s singing again, however; for that very week Ludo taught her the words and tune of the Creed and that lovely hymn “All things bright and beautiful”, and very soon she was able to read for herself and so could follow the words of the psalms, and as she always sang very quietly after Gwen’s complaint, even if she made a slight mistake nobody heard.
    Sunday afternoon was also rather a trying time. Papa took a nap in the drawing-room, and the children had to be quiet in the nursery upstairs. Gwen read, and as she was not very fond of reading this made her rather cross; she greatly preferred to sew. Indeed she could not concentrate on any book for long, particularly if the book were one of Mr. Hinchliffe’s Christmas presents, which were what Mildred considered suitable reading for Sunday. So Gwen constantly broke out in talk, and was irritable if Laura, who was deep in a book of very fine Bible stories which she loved, did not instantly reply. Ludo was not allowed to play his pet game of
Paper Cricket
on Sunday afternoon. This game was another of his own inventions; it was played by one person only, and consisted of cricket matches between famous county sides, accurately scored. Runs, wides, bowled, caught at wicket and so on were inscribed on small neat slips of paper, and then drawn at random from a shuffled heap in a box. Too many of Ludo’s games, in Gwen’s opinion, were played by himself, and she disliked
Paper Cricket
strongly. In any case, no form of cricket could be played on Sunday afternoon. Ludo, who liked Mr. Hinchliffe’s Christmas presents no better than Gwen, had, however, a very fine wild animal book, a present from Papa, to console him; in this book there were pictures which stood out inrelief from the page, on paper frames. Even Laura was hot allowed to touch this precious book, though she might look over Ludo’s shoulder for a treat, sometimes.
    After tea on Sunday the children went downstairs to the drawing-room to Grandmamma and Papa. The drawing-room was a very pretty place, all yellow silk frills and green velvet and photographs; but Laura was never at her ease there. It was understood that the drawing-room was still exactly as Mamma had left it, and would never be changed, and the walls and tables were full of photographs of Mamma. Gwen and Grandmamma, it appeared, liked these relics, but Laura at the bottom of her heart hated them. She hated them for Ludo’s sake, for there were two terrible things connecting Ludo and Mamma. One was that Ludo stills loved his mother so devotedly that he could not bear to hear her mentioned, but turned pale and sullen and hung his head if she were even remotely alluded to, which irritated Papa dreadfully. The other was, that by his delay on the fatal afternoon of Laura’s birth, Ludo was supposed to have helped to bring about Mamma’s death. Laura rejected this theory, rejected it on Ludo’s behalf with all her heart and soul; it’s not
true
, she said to herself with passionate conviction. She said it to herself alone, however, for she would not wound Ludo by appearing to understand Gwen’s veiled references to this terrible subject. So Laura was never happy in the drawing-room. She liked, however, to hear Gwen playing the “pieces” she was learning at school, which was part of the routine on Sunday evening. Gwen played the piano very prettily, her long fingers skimming the notes in trills and runs in a manner marvellous to behold; the Armisteads all admired her playing very much, especially Papa.
    Presently Papa and Gwen, and often Ludo, went off to evening service, and Grandmamma retired to her own room, where indeed she now spent most of her life. Laura was supposed to go to bed at this point, and Ada and she—Mildred was often out on Sunday evenings—retired to her bedroom for that purpose. Butoften