CHAPTER XX. 



Miss Badsworth was as good as her word ; when once she 

 had burnt her boats she went into the matter in hand with 

 all her natural energy. The manner of burning her boats 

 emanated from Lavvy. 



"You cannot be bothered to death with letter-writing, 

 auntie," she had said. "Your good friends won't leave 

 you alone, you may be sure of that, and I don't blame them ; 

 you will be constantly requested to do this, that or the other, 

 for they cannot possibly help missing you. We shall have 

 as much business correspondence as we can manage. Dad 

 says you will be inundated with letters : complaints of 

 damage, complaints of gates being left open and cattle 

 straying in consecjuence, and no end of demands for com- 

 pensation from people who have lost a fabulous amount of 

 fowls, the which, if they ever existed, would preclude the 

 necessity for importing poultry from foreign lands ; all these 

 things will require attention. Later on there will be fixtures 

 to make and cards to be sent out (it appears that Uncle 

 Hugo did all these things himself), and the ordinary business 

 letters, like the poor, will be always with us. Now why not 

 get some nice paper from the stores with the address, Cran- 

 ston Lodge, at the top and a lovely NO, printed, say, in red 

 and gold towards the bottom of the page in the form of a 

 monogram. You would then only have to write 'Miss 

 Badsworth regrets that circumstances compel her to say ' — 

 and nobody could possibly be offended at the beautiful mono- 

 gram NO." 



" Really, Lavvy, you have original ideas," Miss Badsworth 

 replied, laughing, " It certainly sounds like a good scheme." 



142 



