unnecessary fires, no unnecessary, guests. Her mistresses were obliged
to do a considerable amount of household work; for instance, they made
their beds and Miss Tebbs dusted the china; she also had the charge of
the linen and store-room; whilst Miss Jane was responsible for the
silver, the lamps, and, on Eliza's day out, "the door."

When the door was answered by Eliza in person, her manner was so fierce
and intimidating that nervous callers complained that the Tebbs' maid
looked as if she was ready to fly at, and bite them! Ill-natured
tongues declared that the tyrant was tolerated merely because she was a
channel for the most far-reaching, fresh and sensational gossip. But
let us hope that this was a malignant libel!

Highfield Cottage was old, two-storied and solid; elsewhere than
Tadpool it might have ventured to pose as a villa residence, but
Tadpool, a fine, sixteenth century, self-respecting and historical
village, tolerated no villas. If such abodes ventured to arise, they
sprouted timidly in the fields beyond its boundaries. Moreover, the
age and history of Highfield Cottage were too widely known for any
change of name. The cottage was connected with the high road by a prim
little garden and a red-tiled footpath; eight long narrow windows
commanded a satisfactory outlook--including Littlecote Hall--a square
white mansion withdrawn in dignified retirement behind elms and
beeches, in age the contemporary of its humbler _vis-à-vis_.

Here resided Edward Shafto, late Fellow of St. John's, Oxford, his wife
Lucilla, and his son Douglas. Ten years previously the family had
descended on Tadpool as from the skies--or as a heavy stone cast into
some quiet mill pond. No one in the neighbourhood could discover
anything about them--although Jane Tebbs's exertions in the matter were