cy. Later on, dawn was
connected in her mind with the suddenly jerky movement of the
night-light's luminous reflection upon the ceiling, at which she would
stare for hours in meditative content. This movement was always followed
by the splutter and hiss of the drowning wick, and her first feeling of
nocturnal terror was experienced when once these symptoms occurred and
were followed, not by morning light, but by darkness. Then she shrieked,
not because she feared anything in the darkness yet, but because she
could not understand it.

The sensations of this Islington baby may have resembled those of a
full-grown Carib or Hottentot in their simple acceptance of primary
facts, in a desire for synthetic representation which distinguishes an
unsophisticated audience of plays, in that odd passion for accuracy
whose breach upsets a habit, whose observance confirms dogs, children
and savages in their hold upon life.

As was natural for one more usually occupied with effects than causes,
Jenny took delight in colored chalks and beads, and probably a vivid
scarlet _pelisse_ first awoke her dormant sense of beauty. The
appearance of this vestment was more important than its purpose, but the
tying on of her "ta-ta"--at first a frilled bonnet, later on a rakish
Tam o' Shanter--was clapped as the herald of drowsy glidings in cool
airs. She would sit in the perambulator staring solemnly at Ruby, and
only opening her eyes a little wider when she was bumped down to take a
crossing and up to regain the pavement. Passers-by, who leaned over to
admire her, gained no more appreciation than a puzzled blink, less than
was vouchsafed to the sudden shadow of a bird's flight across her
vision.

Then came hot summer days and a sailor hat which enrolled her in the
crew of the H.M.S. _Goliath_. This hat she disliked on account of the
elastic, which Alfie loved to catch hold of and let go with a smacking
sound that hurt her chin dreadfully; and sometimes in tugging at it, she
would herself let it slip so that it caught her nose like a whip.

These slow promenades up and down the shady side of Hagworth Street were
very pleasant; although the inevitable buckling of the strap began to
impede her ideas of freedom, so much so in time that it became a duty to
herself to wriggle as much as possible before she let Ruby fasten it
round her waist. Perhaps the first real struggle for self-expression
happened on a muddy day, when she discovered that, by let