Free The Aloe by Katherine Mansfield Page A

cloth she had dried them in – But propped against the butter dish there was a dirty greasy little book – half unstitched with curled edges – And while she mashed some butter soft for spreading she read – “To dream of four black beetles dragging a hearse is bad. Signifies death of one you hold near or dear either father husband brother son or intended. If the beetles crawl backwards as you watch them it means death by fire or from great height, such as flight of stairs, scaffolding etc. Spiders. To dream of spiders creeping over you is good. Signifies large sum of money in the near future. Should party be in family way an easy confinement may be expected but care should be taken in sixth month to avoid eating of probable present of shell fish.” “How Many Thousand Birds I see”. Oh Life, there was Miss Beryl – Alice dropped the knife and stuffed her Dream Book under the butter dish but she hadn’t time to hide it quite for Beryl ran into the kitchen and up to the table and the first thing her eye lighted on – although she didn’t say anything were the grey edges sticking out from the plate. Alice saw Miss Beryl’s scornful meaning little smile and the way she raised her eyebrows and screwed up her eyes as though she couldn’t quite make out what that was under the plate – She decided to answer if Miss Beryl should ask her what it was – “Nothing as belongs to you Miss” “No business of yours Miss” but she knew Miss Beryl would not ask her – . Alice was a mild creature in reality but she always had the most marvellous retorts ready for the questions that she knew would never be put to her – The composing of them and the turning of them over and over in her brain comforted her just as much as if she’d really expressed them and kept her self respect alive in places where she had been that chivvied she’d been afraid to go to bed at night with a box of matches on the chair by her in case she bit the tops off in her sleep – as you might say. “Oh Alice,” said Miss Beryl “there’s one extra to tea so heat a plate of yesterday’s scones please and put on the new Victoria sanwich as well as the coffee cake. And don’t forget to put little doyleys under the plates will you – You did yesterday again you know and the tea looked so ugly and common. And Alice please don’t put that dreadful old pink and green cosy on the afternoon teapot again. That is only for the mornings and really I think it had better be kept for kitchen use – it’s so shabby and quite smelly – Put on the Chinese one out of the drawer in the dining room side board – You quite understand, don’t you. We’ll have tea as soon as it is ready –” Miss Beryl turned away – “That sing aloft on every tree” she sang as she left the kitchen very pleased with her firm handling of Alice.
    Oh, Alice was wild! She wasn’t one to mind being told, but there was something in the way Miss Beryl had of speaking to her that she couldn’t stand. It made her curl up inside as you might say and she fair trembled. But what Alice really hated Miss Beryl for was – she made her feel low: she talked to Alice in a special voice as though she wasn’t quite all there and she never lost her temper – never, even when Alice dropped anything or forgot anything she seemed to have expected it to happen . . . “If you please Mrs Burnell,” said an imaginary Alice, as she went on, buttered the scones, “I’d rather not take my orders from Miss Beryl. I may be only a common servant girl as doesn’t know how to play the guitar.” This last thrust pleased her so much that she quite recovered her temper. She carried her tray along the passage to the dining room “The only thing to do,” she heard as she opened the door “is to cut the sleeves out entirely and just have a broad band of black velvet over the shoulders and round the arms instead.” Mrs Burnell with her elder and younger sisters leaned over the table in the act of