Free Sleep in Peace by Phyllis Bentley Page B

chimneys for the emission of smoke, shops, houses, and schools; there was also a park with fine white statues (classical, Frederick said) and a Municipal Library. Grace’s father was a governor of the Hudley Girls’ High School and of the Hudley Boys’ Secondary School; he was also a member of the town’s education committee, and of the special commission for the new Technical College. Edward was to go to the Technical College at the end of this year, in order to learn the theory and practice of textile manufacture. Edward was very clever, quite exceptional, everybody said, and would be a great help to Father at the mill; Frederick also, Grace understood, had ability, but was careless. Frederick, however, was more exciting to listen to, and his voice was more agreeable than Edward’s, both in conversation and when he read the Bible at prayers.
    On weekdays, in Grace’s world, one went to school in the mornings, and played “organised games” in the afternoons—these were a new idea, very progressive and advanced, said Father. After tea one did one’s homework, practised on the piano, sewed a little, had prayers and went to bed. On Sundays one went to Chapel morning and evening, and in the afternoon to Sunday School; in the hiatus between that and tea the family usually gathered round Father, who told the most interesting Bible stories. This was the only time one saw much of Father, in point of fact; at all other times he was either out at the mill or at a committee meeting, or, if at home, was busy at his desk writing letters or buried behind his newspaper. He did not interfere in family life unless the noise became too great, when he sometimes rushed wrathfully into the study, and smacked anybody whom he happened to get hold of. But that was more frequent in the old days, reflected Grace, when the boys were younger and the study was called the nursery. Both the boys had bicycles, and Grace was to have one very shortly. On Saturdays the boys went out for longbicycle rides, to churches or castles or other places of historical interest in the neighbourhood; Edward took photographs; Frederick had begun a collection of rubbings of ancient brasses. These rides, and the walks on which the boys sometimes took Grace, were planned with the aid of maps, of which Edward had a considerable collection.
    Yes, the world was full of the most exciting, varied, interesting things; there was not the slightest need for any of those wicked amusements practised by other, ungodly, people, such as the theatre, and dancing, and cards. But then people who needed such amusements were probably under the influence of alcohol, which over-stimulated their nerves and awoke wicked cravings. None of the Hinchliffes, of course, would ever fall under the influence of alcohol, for they had all signed the Pledge. Grace was proud that she had been thought old enough to sign the Pledge on her last birthday;
I, Grace Mary Hinchliffe, promise with God’s help never to take alcohol as a beverage
, it said, on a beautiful certificate scrolled with red and gold. People who took alcohol as a beverage almost necessarily committed other sins; to satisfy their feverish nerves they gambled, danced, even told lies. To tell lies was to fall into a moral abyss so awful that Grace shrank from even thinking of it, in horror. She had had a terrible shock when Father once accused Frederick of telling a lie. Frederick! Commit such a sin against God! Never! Grace refused to allow her belief in her brother to be shaken; Frederick might be careless and prone to exaggeration, but that he would tell a deliberate lie Grace entirely refused to believe. And she was right, as it turned out. Frederick had said he had locked the bicycle shed in the backyard, when in fact he had not locked it. They all prayed over the matter, earnestly; and presently Frederick, in an agony of blushes, remembered that he was confusing the evening in question with the