All 6 Uses

consequence
in
The Memory Keeper’s Daughter
(Auto-generated)

That was fair, the consequence of having kept this to herself.†
p. 232.1

consequence = result
Michelle didn't approve; she believed it was a consequence of grief, and she wanted him to get over it.†
p. 378.2 *
It was as if she had entered some twilight zone of her own, some state halfway between sleep and waking, where she would not have to consider too fully the consequences of her decisions, or the fate of the baby sleeping in her dresser drawer, or her own.†
p. 60.3
There will be no consequences for you, I promise.†
p. 65.7
That terrible consequences would follow seemed both inevitable and just.†
p. 108.6
He was filled with the old, sure sense that the snowy night when he had handed their daughter to Caroline Gill would not pass without consequence.†
p. 193.8

Definitions:

(1) (consequence as in: a direct consequence of)
a result of something (often an undesired side effect)
(2) (consequence as in: of little consequence)
importance or relevance
(3) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)
In classic literature, consequential may refer to someone with too much feeling of self-importance as when Dickens wrote "Because he's a proud, haughty, consequential, turned-up-nosed peacock."

Self-consequence was used in a similar manner, but is more easily understood by modern readers since important is one of the modern senses of consequence.

Another classic sense of consequent that is similar to importance or significance refers to "material wealth or prominence" as when Jane Austen wrote: "They had each had money, but their marriages had made a material difference in their degree of consequence."