CHAPTER III 



ANGLING THAT " PREACHETH PATIENCE" 



June 1898 



|NCE a year our housemaid assumes do- 

 minion over our entire household : when 

 she opens her mouth no dog is allowed 

 to bark. We have to pack up and be off. Spring- 

 cleaning is on stair-carpets are torn up ; bed- 

 rooms made quite uninhabitable. 



Once I tried to live through it at home all 

 alone, the rest of the family being at the sea, but 

 I don't want to try it again. I resolved for the 

 future to leave spring-cleaning to itself, so this 

 year, in the first week in May, we started off for 

 the Isle of Wight. 



I am now writing in the middle of June, on a 

 bitterly cold day, without a fire a north-easterly 

 wind prevailing, as it has done for some days 

 and I find it difficult to realize now that five weeks 

 ago we had some bright and shiny days of lovely 

 summer weather. 



13 



