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Bliss and Other Stories
by Katherine Mansfield
NEW YORK
ALFRED A KNOPF
MCMXXII
Published, 1920
Reprinted 1920
Reprinted 1921
Reprinted 1921
Reprinted 1921
Reprinted 1922
Reprinted 1922
Printed in Great Britain at The Mayflower Press, Plymouth. William Brendon & Son, Ltd.
To John Middleton Murray
CONTENTS
PRELUDE
JE NE PARLE PAS FRANCAIS
BLISS
THE WIND BLOWS
PSYCHOLOGY
PICTURES
THE MAN WITHOUT A TEMPERAMENT
MR. REGINALD PEACOCK'S DAY
SUN AND MOON
FEUILLE D'ALBUM
A DILL PICKLE
THE LITTLE GOVERNESS
REVELATIONS
THE ESCAPE
PRELUDE
1
THERE was not an inch of room for Lottie and Kezia in the buggy. When Pat swung them on top of the luggage they wobbled; the grandmother's lap was full and Linda Burnell could not possibly have held a lump of a child on hers for any distance. Isabel, very superior, was perched beside the new handy-man on the driver's seat. Hold-alls, bags and boxes were piled upon the floor. "These are absolute necessities that I will not let out of my sight for one instant," said Linda Burnell, her voice trembling with fatigue and excitement.
Lottie and Kezia stood on the patch of lawn just inside the gate all ready for the fray in their coats with brass anchor buttons and little round caps with battleship ribbons. Hand in hand, they stared with round solemn eyes, first at the absolute necessities and then at their mother.
"We shall simply have to leave them. That is all. We shall simply have to cast them off," said Linda Burnell. A strange little laugh flew from her lips; she leaned back against the buttoned leather cush