fiefoe

[Query: Is thought on abstract questions ever a waste of time?]

Inequalities of Fate very curious. Should like, on this account, to believe in Reincarnation.
N.B. Must try to remember that Social Success is seldom the portion of those who habitually live in the provinces. No doubt they serve some other purpose in the vast field of Creation - but have not yet discovered what.
Just as the realisation of this threatens to overwhelm me altogether, I fall asleep.
Mein.: Curious, but authenticated fact, that a funeral is the only gathering to which the majority of men ever go willingly. Should like to think out why this should be so, but must instead unearth top-hat and other accoutrements of woe.
Mrs. B. observes that much that is published nowadays seems to her unnecessary, and why is there so much Sex in everything? - Cousin Maud says that books collect dust, anyway.
Reflect, not for the first time, that we are spared much by inability - so misguidedly deplored by Scottish poet - to see ourselves as others see us.

I reply suitably, and she tells me about cinnamon, Vapex, gargling with glycerine of thymol, blackcurrant tea, onion broth, Friar's Balsam, linseed poultices, and thermogene wool. I sneeze and say Thank you-thank you very much, a good many times. She goes, but turns back at the door to tell me about wool next the skin, nasal douching, and hot milk last thing at night. I say Thank you, again.
Cook unhelpful and suggests cold beef and beetroot. I say Yes, excellent, unless perhaps roast chicken and bread sauce even better? Cook talks about the oven. Compromise in the end on cutlets and mashed potatoes...
We part efusively.
Greet her with an enthusiasm to which she must, I fear, be unaccustomed, as it appears to startle her. Endeavour to explain it... end up with quotation to the effect that I never hear the sweet music of speech, and start at the sound of my own. Can see by the way our Vicar's wife receives this that she does not recognise it as a quotation.
Grandmother, especially, sends unlimited letters and telegrams, to all of which I feel bound to reply - mostly with civil assurances of gratitude for her kindness... Very, very difficult to think of new ways of wording this - moreover, must reserve something for letter I shall have to write when visit is safely over.

"Diary of a Provincial Lady"