She said in a strained voice:  “How dare you tell a lie to me and pretend that you were going to the marshes?” He answered, his eyebrows meeting and lying in straight, sullen bars:  “I had to do that so’s you wouldn’t worry about me not coming home.  And I paid for myself with the sixpence that was over from the five shillings Cousin Tom gave me at Christmas.  And you know it doesn’t really matter about the measles, because I’m strong and don’t always go catching things like Roger does.”

He made as if he were going to sit down at the table, but she said:  “No, you mustn’t have any tea.  Go to your room and undress.  You’ve lied and you’ve disobeyed.  I’ll have to whip you.”  Her heart was thumping so that she thought she was going to faint.  He lifted his chin a little higher and said:  “Very well, the circus was very good.  It was quite worf this.”  He marched out of the room and left her sick and quivering at her duty.  After she had heard him bang his door, she realised that Roger was asking her again and again if he might have some more cherry jam, and she answered, sighing deeply, “No, dear, it’s too rich.  If you have any more you’ll be ill,” and she rose from the table and took the jar into the larder.  She decided to clear away tea first, but that only meant carrying the tray backwards and forwards twice, and after a few moments she found herself standing in the middle of the kitchen, shaking with terror, while the other child whined about her skirts and stretched up its abhorrent little arms.  She pushed it aside, qualifying the harsh movement with some insincere endearment, and went to Richard’s room and walked in blindly, saying:  “I must whip you—­you’ve broken the law, and if you do that you must be punished.”  Out of the darkness before her came the voice of the tiny desperado:  “Very well.  It was quite worf this.  Mother, I’m ready.  Come on and whip me.”  She pulled down the blinds and set herself to the horrid task, and kept at it hardly, unsparingly, until she felt she had really hurt him.  Then she said, with what seemed to be the last breath in her heart-shattered body:  “There, you see, whenever you break the law people will hurt you like this.  So take notice.”  She moved about the room, leaving it as it should be left for the night, opening the windows and folding up the counterpane, while he lay face downwards on his pillow.  Just as she was closing the door he called softly: 

“Mummie!”

She continued to close it, and he cried: 

“Mummie!”

But she remained quite quiet so that he thought she had gone.  After a minute she heard him throw himself over in the bed and kick the clothes and sob fiercely, “Gah!  Why can’t she come when I call her?”

She was back by his bedside in a second, and his arms were round her neck and he was sobbing: 

“Mummie, mummie, I know I’ve been naughty!” And as he felt the wetness of her face he cried out, “Oh, mummie, have I made you cry?  I will be good!  I will be good!  I’ll never make you cry again!  I know I was a beast to go ’cos you really were frightened of us getting measles, but oh, mummie, I did so want to see a tiger!”