hence withered Gladys and the impersonal cook
had also vanished, Michael gleaned a certain amount of gossip and found
that the immediate cause of Nurse's departure was due to Miss Carthew's
discovery of her dead drunk in a kitchen chair. It seemed that Miss
Carthew, slim and strong and beautiful, had had to carry the old woman
up to her bedroom, while Michael lay sleeping, had had to undress and
put her to bed and on the next day to contend with her asseverations
that the collapse was due to violent neuralgia. It seemed also that for
years the neighbourhood had known of Nurse's habits, had even seen her
on two occasions upset Stella's perambulator. Indeed, so far as Michael
could gather, he and Stella had lived until Miss Carthew's arrival in a
state of considerable insecurity.

However, Nurse was now a goblin of the past, and the past could be
easily forgotten. In these golden evenings of the summer-term, there was
too much going forward in Carlington Road to let old glooms overshadow
the gaiety of present life. As Mrs. Carthew had prophesied, Michael
enjoyed being at school very much, and having already won a prize for
being top of his class in Divinity and English at Christmas with every
prospect of being top of his class again in the summer, he was anxious
to achieve the still greater distinction of winning a prize in the
school sports which were to be held in July. All the boys who lived in
the Carlington Confederate Roads determined to win prizes, and Rodber
was very much to the fore in training them all to do him credit. It was
the fashion to choose colours in which to run, and Michael after a
week's debate elected to appear in violet running-drawers and
primrose-bordered vest. The twin Macalisters, contemporaries of Michael,
ran in cerise and eau-de-nil, while the older Macalister wore
ultramarine and mauve. Garrod chose dark green and Rodber looked
dangerously swift in black and yellow. Every evening there was steady
practice under Rodber, either in canvas shoes from lamp-post to
lamp-post or, during the actual week before the sports, in spiked
running-shoes on the grass-track, with corks to grip and a temperamental
stop-watch to cause many disputes. It was a great humiliation for the
Confederate Roads when Rodber himself failed to last the half-mile
(under 14) on the day itself. However, the Macalister twins won the
sack-race (under 11) and in the same class Michael won the hundred yards
Consolation Race and a