Time and tide

"February 14th:  Have won first prize in Time and Tide competition, but again divided.  Am very angry indeed, and write excellent letter to the Editor under false name,  protesting against this iniquitous custom.  After it has gone, become seriously uneasy under the fear that use of false name is illegal.  Look through Whitaker, but can find nothing but Stamp Duties and Concealment of Illegitimate Births, so abandon it in disgust.
Write to Angela -- under my own name -- to enquire kindly if she went in for the competition.  Hope she did, and that she will have the decency to say so.

February 16th:  Informed by Ethel, as she calls me in the morning, that Helen Wills has had six kittens, of which five survive.
Cannot imagine how I shall break this news to Robert.  Reflect -- not for the first time -- that the workings of Nature are most singular.
Angela writes that she didn't go in for competition, thinking subject puerile, but that she solved 'Merope's' Crossword puzzle in fifteen minutes.
  (N.B.  This last statement almost certainly inaccurate.)"

Diary of a Provincial Lady   E.M. Delafield

Holiday postcards

27 July:  "End of holiday quite definitely in sight, and everyone very kindly says, why not stay on?  I refer, in return, to Robert and the children -- and add, though not aloud, the servants, the laundry, the Women's Institiute, repainting the outside of the bath, and the state of my overdraft.  Everyone expresses civil regret at my departure, and I go so far as to declare recklessly that I shall be coming back next year -- which I well know to be unlikely in the extreme.
Spend last evening sending picture-postcards to everyone to whom I have been intending to send them ever since I started."

Diary of  a Provincial Lady  E.M.Delafield

Pip, Squeak and Wilfred

"January 17th:   ... Go up to night-nursery and offer to read Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare.  Vicky says she prefers Pip, Squeak, and Wilfred.  Robin says that he would like Gulliver's Travels.  Compromise on Grimm's Fairy Tales, although slightly uneasy as to their being in accordance with best modern ideals.  Both children take immense interest in story of highly undesirable person who wins fortune, fame, and beautiful Princess by means of lies, violence, and treachery.  Feel sure this must have disastrous effect on both in years to come."

Diary of a Provincial Lady  E.M.Delafield