The pink and black fittings were frosted over. I ran the water and threw in big handfuls of my cousin’s bath salts. I felt sick; my inside was upset by fear and excitement.

There were a lot of medicines in the mirrored cupboard. I took some Milk of Magnesia and some liquid paraffin, pouring them into the cup of my hand; then I drank. They made me feel worse.

I lay in the bath recovering, then I dried and put on my clothes. They had sucked up the steam from the bath and were clammy, like rubber, but I could not have dressed in the drawing-room because of Wills.

My cousin was already having breakfast when I came down.

“I can face the day much better after my first cup of coffee,” he said as I sat down at the white cloth. There was a mother-of-pearl tea-caddy and a spirit-kettle by Stanley’s place. He was not down yet. I was glad, I did not know what to say to him.

When we had finished, my cousin went upstairs to put on her hat and coat; then Miss Billings brought the car round and we set off to see the art schools.

Miss Billings’s skirt came as a surprise after the peaked cap and jacket which were all that could be seen from the outside of the car.

I was thinking about her and the cruel long hatpins my cousin still wore, until we drew up at the first school. We went to Chelsea, to Gower Street, to Southampton Row, to Westminster. We visited them all, ending up at South Kensington on our way home.

At Chelsea I looked into the basement and saw two girls doing dumb-bell exercises. They did not look at all like art students. It was lunch-time when we got to the Royal College. The students were streaming down the stairs. Some of them were strangely dressed and dirty, and I was impressed.

Lunch was like the meal before execution to me. My aunt and brother were arriving afterwards to discuss what was to be done with me.

Before they came I was very restless, wandering in and out of the rooms upstairs although they were other people’s bedrooms. Wills’s was small. I expected -to see a hair-tidy, but there was nothing: only a doggy calendar and a few pins. My cousin’s room was dark and quiet. The white furniture gleamed from dark corners, and the pink eiderdown seemed like a soft patch of rouge on someone’s white cheek. In Stanley’s room I found a lot of medicines on the marble washstand. I read the labels and tasted some of them. I hoped they would make me feel better.

At last I heard the front-door bell and knew that one of them had come. I looked over the banisters and saw my aunt going into the drawing-room. I came down quickly, wanting to get the meeting over, but I waited in the hall some time, not daring to go in.

Then I opened the door and walked quickly towards her. She got up and gave me a strange, heavy kiss. Her voice was bewildered and childish.

“Why did you do it, Denton?” she said. “Why did you do it?” Her anger was overlaid with bewilderment, but I knew that she was judging me.

I grew very red and found nothing to say except, “I’m never going back to school.”

“But you must.” Her voice was almost desperate. She seemed frightened by my obstinacy. “Everyone expects you to go back.”

At this moment Wills opened the door for my brother. He came in, hat in hand, smart and civilized. He shook my hand extravagantly, saying, “I never thought you had it in you,” and then he laughed breathlessly.