Giant’s Bread · Book I · III · Chapter 1 3 1

I

A new nursemaid came, a thin white girl with protruding eyes. Her name was Isabel, but she was called Susan as being More Suitable. This puzzled Vernon very much. He asked Nurse for an explanation.

“There are names that are suitable to the gentry, Master Vernon, and names that are suitable for servants. That’s all there is to it.”

“Then why is her real name Isabel?”

“There are people who when they christen their children set themselves up to ape their betters.”

The word “ape” had a distracting influence on Vernon. Apes were monkeys. Did people christen their children at the zoo?

“I thought people were christened in church.”

“So they are, Master Vernon.”

Very puzzling. Why was everything so puzzling? Why were things more puzzling than they used to be? Why did one person tell you one thing and another person something quite different?

“Nurse, how do babies come?”

“You’ve asked me that before, Master Vernon. The little angels bring them in the night through the window.”

“That Am-am-am⁠—”

“Don’t stammer, Master Vernon.”

“Amenkun lady who came⁠—she said I was found under a gooseberry bush.”

“That’s the way they do with American babies,” said Nurse serenely.

Vernon heaved a sigh of relief. Of course! He felt a throb of gratitude to Nurse. She always knew. She made the unsteady swaying universe stand still again. And she never laughed. His mother did. He had heard her say to other ladies, “He asks me the quaintest questions. Just listen to this.⁠ ⁠… Aren’t children funny and adorable?”

But Vernon couldn’t see that he was funny or adorable at all. He just wanted to know. You’d got to know. That was part of growing up. When you were grown up you knew everything and had gold sovereigns in your purse.