it was the vicar who innocently started the unfortunate chain of events.
the afternoon gathering was a small one, consisting only of the vicar, lady agnes, lady agnes’s two children - chester, who was then nine years old, margaret, who was eight, the children’s aunt, lady alice, and the governess, miss green.
“and what do you wish to be when you grow up?” the vicar asked chester.
“an admiral,” chester responded without hesitation. adults had asked him the same question before and always received the same prompt answer.
“why, that is admir- able,” the vicar replied, with a slight chuckle at his own little joke, which he had had occasion to use before on other small boys who had expressed the wish to become admirals.
“why do you not ask me what i wish to be when i grow up?” margaret asked the vicar.
“i should hope you would like to make a good match,” lady agnes interposed quickly, “with an honorable gentleman.”
“no, that is not at all what i would like to do when i grow up,” margaret insisted.
“then, what would you like to do, or be?” the vicar gently asked the scowling child.
“i want to be the strongest man in the world,” margaret replied.
“ha, ha, ha!” cried chester, “that is the silliest thing i ever heard!”
“yes, margaret, you are getting to be rather a big girl to be saying such silly things,” lady agnes said, with a hint of steel in her voice.
margaret made a face, and the vicar smiled politely and sipped his tea.
“but do you know,” lady alice interposed, “the child’s assertion may not be as ridiculous as first appears. science is making astonishing strides these days, with ocean crossings in as little as a week, and the promise of flights to the moon. i have been told by some of my friends knowledgeable in such matters, that the day when men can be turned into women, and women into men, may not
be so distant as we might think.”
lady agnes was accustomed to such comments from her sister, though she continued to be annoyed by them. “i should think the day might be quite far off,” she replied as evenly as she could.
“i think no such thing has been prophesied in scripture,” the vicar added mildly, “not even in the book of revelation.”
“the scriptures do not prophesy ocean crossings in a week, or the telegraph,” lady alice countered.
the vicar merely smiled, margaret directed a victorious scowl at chester, and there the matter might have ended.
but stone, the butler, had overheard the conversation and reported it that evening to lord charles, when he returned home from the ministry.
outraged that such a subject should be broached in his home, especially in front of his children, lord charles confronted lady agnes in their bedroom later that evening, upbraided her mercilessly, and administered her a sound thrashing.
mortified, lady agnes waited her chance.
it came three weeks later, when the circus came to town. she ran away and joined it, taking up with samsono, the strong man.
mortified in his turn by his wife’s desertion, lord charles took to the bottle, and then began a liaison with the barmaid of a low tavern beside the docks who stabbed him to death a week after he lost his post at the ministry.
the two children, margaret and chester, took divergent paths.
margaret followed her mother into the circus, finding employment successively as the tattooed girl, the strong woman, and the fat lady, finally becoming the tattooed strong fat lady - a singular attraction.
chester persevered in the face of his family’s multiple shames, and enjoyed an honorable career in the navy, attaining the rank of captain, but not of admiral.
years later, lady alice and the aged vicar took tea together again and reflected on the sad events.
“such tragedies might be avoided,” lady alice opined, “in a future society in which the roles of men and women are not so rigidly delineated.”
“perhaps, “ the vicar agreed, “but who knows what new, different ones, might unfold?”
“i do not suppose.” lady alice rejoindeed good naturally, “that such things are prophesied in scripture?”
“not so far as i know,” the vicar replied, “not even in the book of revelations.”
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