“I remember Nettie; she didn’t look the kind of girl who would go off in a decline. But the rustics are dreadfully unhealthy. When I was at the Buttery buying things of the cottagers I had a fixed rule by which I ingratiated myself. If a woman was under fifty I inquired after the baby; over fifty, I inquired after the bad leg. It sounds horrid, but was invariably successful. If the victim was a man, I asked if his ground grew good onions, and said how sorry I was that I couldn’t keep a pig. “By the way, when you see Mrs. Silas Daborn, ask her to save me a kitten next time they occur. The cat we have won’t catch mice--lets them frisk with the tip of her tail. I cannot think what cats are coming to. Tim, who is not a Progressive, says it is all the fault of the School Board. “We shall come by the quick afternoon train on Wednesday, June 2. We arrive at five something; Mr. Jayne will please look it up in the time-table. “Affectionately yours, with a kiss for the baby, “BARBARA CLUTTON.” THE END. Transcriber’s Note This transcription is based on images made available by the University of Wisconsin and Google: books.google.com/books?id=KSXQAAAAMAAJ These scans are also available through the Hathi Trust Digital Library: hdl.handle.net/2027/wu.89011718319 The following changes were made to the printed text: • Added a table of contents. • p. 7: She knew the effect of foxgolve on the human heart--Changed “foxgolve” to “foxglove”. • p. 12: “No glass,” said Palema in astonishment.--Changed “Palema” to “Pamela”. • p. 26: he rolled down the covering and showed his bandaged limb.--Changed “he” to “He”. • p. 33: The farmhouse was so overgrown with fruit-trees and ivy that the mellow bricks were shouded.--Changed “shouded” to “shrouded”. • p. 63: “It’s the Shakepere class, mamma.”--Changed “Shakepere” to “Shakspere” for consistency. • p. 65: She was introduced to all of then--Changed “then” to “them”. • p. 71: And you never how these queer people from London may turn out.--Inserted “know” after “never”. • p. 127: Don’t say anthing dreadful.--Changed “anthing” to “anything”. • p. 204: His tips have puts hundreds into my pocket.--Changed “puts” to “put”. • p. 213: They gave her flowers, one or twice a jewel.--Changed “one” to “once”. • p. 242: It was sombeody else--one of the blessed bungles--Changed “sombeody” to “somebody”. • p. 255: it’s frill tickling her cheeks.--Changed “it’s” to “its”. • pp. 256–57: it was part of the compact that that she was not to go beyond--Deleted the second “that”. • pp. 303–04: “Put her in here. Then go down and send Nettie up. “We’ll undress her,”--Deleted the opening double quotation mark before “We’ll”. In the plain text version of this ebook, italics have been denoted by underscores, and small capitals have been changed to all capitals. Except where noted otherwise, inconsistencies of spelling and hyphenation have been preserved.