? _Remember thou keep holy the Sabbath Day_. It
was obviously a simple matter for grown-up people, who no longer enjoyed
playing with toys, to keep this commandment. At present it was
difficult to learn and difficult to keep. _Honour thy father and thy
mother_. He loved his mother. He would always love her, even if she
forgot him. He might not love her so much as formerly, but he would
always love her. _Thou shalt do no murder_. Michael had no intention of
doing murder. Since the Hangman in Punch and Judy he was cured of any
inclination towards murder. _Thou shalt not commit adultery_. Why should
he ever want to marry another man's wife? At present he could not
imagine himself married to anybody. He supposed that as one result of
growing up he would get married. But, forewarned, he would take care not
to choose somebody else's wife. _Thou shalt not steal_. With perfect
freedom to eat when and where and what one liked, why should one steal?
_Thou shalt not bear false witness_. It would not be necessary to lie
when grown up, because one could not then be punished. _Thou shalt not
covet thy neighbour's ox_. He would covet nothing, for when he was grown
up he would be able to obtain whatever he wanted.

This desire to be grown up sustained him through much, even through the
long foggy nights which made his bedroom more fearfully still than
before. The room would hardly seem any longer to exist in the murk which
crept through it. The crocus-shaped jet of the gas burned in the
vaporous midnight with an unholy flame somehow, thought Michael, as
candles must look, when at the approach of ghosts they burn blue. How
favourable to crime was fog, how cleverly the thief might steal over the
coal-yard at the back of the house and with powerful tools compel the
back-door to open. And the murderers, how they must rejoice in the
impenetrable air as with long knives they stole out from distant streets
in search of victims. Michael's nerves were so wrought upon by the
unchanging gloom of these wintry days that even to be sent by Nurse to
fetch her thimble or work-bag before tea was a racking experience.

"Now then, Michael, run downstairs like a good boy and fetch my needle
and cotton which I left in the morning-room," Nurse would command. And
in the gathering dusk Michael would practically slide downstairs until
he reached the basement. Then, clutching the object of his errand, he
would brace himself for the slower ascent. Suppose that w