Consequences by EM Delafield

This is one of Delafield's best known works. It is set in the late Victorian era - at the time when she herself was growing up. Her heroine is a neurotic and unhappy girl, Alexandra Clare, whose father is a well to do gentleman. He is a Roman Catholic but her mother Isabel is not much interested in religion. Their children are brought up strictly, however and Alex is not very happy all through her childhood. Her parents criticise her all the time. She does not get on well with her siblings, and she is not even much liked by her hyper critical Nanny. She believes that when she is grown up, she will be a success "like people in books". But for the present she indulges in passions for friends, whom she admires extravagantly. Her parents dont like her emotional nature or the people she chooses to adore. As a young girl, she tries to dominate her younger siblings but tends to end up in scrapes. The most serious is when she bullies her younger sister Barbara into playing "tightropes" with her. Barbara does not want to play, but Alex gets her to stand on a makeshift tightrope, and she falls, hurting her back though not seriously. Her parents are angry at her "nearly killing Barbara" and send her away to a convent school as a punishment. She is not particularly religious then, and does not like the school in Belgium. She spends a few years there, and during her time, she "falls" for an older girl, Queenie, whom she adores. Queenie is not really interested in Alex. She is preoccupied with getting ready to come out in society. She is friendly to Alex but it's clear that she does not really want to be friends with the girl - she is just cultivating her because Alex is from a better class family than hers. When she goes back home, she asks her mother if she can ask Queenie to stay but her mother is horrified at the idea of her befriending a girl who is not their social equal. When she comes out, she finds that she is not a success. She is too anxious to please and she does not make any real friends. She does have one suitor Noel who is a vain "full of himself" young man who simply wants her to listen to him while he talks about how clever he is.