Sorry I couldnt get in last night but my
jovial,disreputable old car died right on the road. Her foot was onher native heath
and her name was Jane. It was nice to live where you could show how capable you
were. Subject to the fluctuations of the market, what kindof a house would you like,
my Jane? Now she turned her eyes on it and lost her breathover it.
It was nice to live where you could show how
capable you were. Jane, were sitting on the top of the world. Ive been living
atBrookview this past year. The house is yours, said Jimmy John with an air of
making them apresent of it. Jane had been so taken up with her house that she had
not looked atthe view at all.
She felt sosorry for Aunt Matilda Jollie who had
had to die and leave it. She told him how she had liked Kenneth Howardspicture and
cut it out.
Shes got it all planned out, dad told the
Altantic.
And Mrs JimmyJohn made me take the chair. Jane knew
he was looking her over anddidnt mind. He must see thecarpenter who had built the
house and find out why he hadnt putany in it.
Jane, I have a suspicion that the roof leaks. There
are people who areborn knowing things. A tiny yellow bird was tilting on a
spireaspray.
Youd have to have some place to write, wouldnt you?
Yes, said Jane, who had never darned a sock in her life. And a three-legged
cooking-pot, she added intriumph.
It lay in the silence of the dewy morning. She and
mother exchanged glimmers but they never daredlaugh. There are people who areborn
knowing things. Mr Meade looked very much like a cabbage inspectacles and flying
jibs but Jane liked him. Your daughter is a very superior person, he told
dad.
On the other hand, neither am I on relief. Do you
think you could keep house for me, Jane? A nice gingery smell of hot cookies floated
out of thedoor as an elderly woman came out .
Mother had given her a dollarwhen she left and she
was not going to take any chances. Penny was a little scared of her after
that.
Jane clutched it tightly all the way back
toBrookview. She hadnever done anything of the kind before but she had not watched
Maryfor nothing. She could do just as she wanted to without makingexcuses for
anything.