# IX explained — Memoirs of a Midget

> Chapter companion for Memoirs of a Midget by Walter de la Mare.

## What happens

The narrator describes her life on Beechwood Hill with Mrs. Bowater, including their Sunday routines, her secret observations of passersby, the construction of a shelf-bedchamber by Mr. Bates, and the arrangement of her finances.

## Themes in this chapter

### Solitude and Self-Discovery

The narrator spends long hours alone, observing passersby, dancing for exercise, and reflecting on her memories and daydreams.

### Class and Social Hierarchy

Mrs. Bowater's views on station, the narrator's secret scrutiny of people's gaits and clothes, and the mention of pew rents highlight social distinctions.

### Mortality and Memory

The narrator recalls her mother's favorite hymn, her father's absence, and the melancholy brought by the church bells; Mrs. Bowater speaks of reunion on another shore.

## Character check-ins

### Unknown (Narrator)

Describes her daily life, Sunday rituals, and secret scrutiny of passersby; reflects on her mother's memory and her own solitude.

### Mrs. Bowater

Helps concoct replies to the narrator's godmother, attends St. Peter's, brings back sermon fragments, and reduces her lodging charges to twenty shillings a week.

### Henry

Mrs. Bowater's cat, sullenly squatting in the passage, rejecting the narrator's advances, and faring sumptuously.

### Mr. Crimble

His sermons are quoted by Mrs. Bowater; the narrator hears fragments of his preaching.

### Bates

A carpenter and distant relative of Mrs. Bowater, builds a shelf and staircase for the narrator's bedchamber; never sends his bill.

### Miss Fenne

Mentioned as someone who, despite her, the narrator's parents seldom took her to church.

## Key lines

> Why, if I had been so rash and undutiful, was she so uneasy? Even the texts she chose had a parched look.

The narrator wonders why her godmother would be anxious if she were truly disobedient, and finds the biblical passages she sends dry and unfeeling.

_Reflects the narrator's strained relationship with her godmother and her own pride._

> This little service set her thinking of Sunday and church. She was not, she told me, 'what you might call a religious woman,' having been compelled 'to keep her head up in the world, and all not being gold that glitters.'

Helping with the letters made Mrs. Bowater consider attending church, though she admits she is not deeply religious, having had to fend for herself in a harsh world.

_Reveals Mrs. Bowater's practical, worldly attitude toward faith._

> I loved their mellow clanging in the lap of the wind, yet it was rather doleful to be left alone with my candles, and only Henry sullenly squatting in the passage awaiting his mistress's return.

The narrator enjoys the sound of the church bells but feels lonely when left by herself with only the cat for company.

_Highlights the narrator's solitude and melancholy._

> But this microscopic examination of mankind must cease with dusk, and the candle-hours passed rather heavily at times.

Her detailed observation of people ends at nightfall, and the evenings by candlelight often feel long and tedious.

_Emphasizes the narrator's limited entertainment and the weight of time._

> Many years have passed, yet at the very whisper of his name, that inexpressible odour clouds up into my nose.

Even long afterward, the mere mention of Mr. Bates brings back the unforgettable smell of his gluepot.

_Shows the lasting sensory impact of a minor character._

> Simple victuals, by all means, miss,' Mrs. Bowater would admit. 'But if it don't enjoy, the inside languishes; and you are not yet of an age that can fall back on skin and bone.'

Mrs. Bowater agrees that plain food is fine but insists that without enjoyment, one's spirit suffers, and the narrator is too young to live on mere scraps.

_Illustrates Mrs. Bowater's concern for the narrator's well-being._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/memoirs_of_a_midget_se/chapters/ix
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/memoirs_of_a_midget_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/memoirs_of_a_midget_se/chapters