This resigned domestic martyr looked placidly up at me, as I stood before her, bewildered, with the novel in my hand.

"Ah, that's a very interesting story," she went on.

"Plenty of love in it, you know.

You have come for it, haven't you?
I remember I promised to lend it to you yesterday." Before I could answer the cook appeared again, in search of more household commodities.

Mrs.Finch repeated the woman's demands, one by one as she made them, in tones of despair.