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The Lodger by Marie Adelaide Belloc Lowndes
page 286 of 323 (88%)
Daisy told of all that she had done with Aunt Margaret. She
described the long, dull hours and the queer jobs her aunt set her
to do--the washing up of all the fine drawing-room china in a big
basin lined with flannel, and how terrified she (Daisy) had been
lest there should come even one teeny little chip to any of it.
Then she went on to relate some of the funny things Aunt Margaret
had told her about "the family."

There came a really comic tale, which hugely interested and delighted
Chandler. This was of how Aunt Margaret's lady had been taken in by
an impostor--an impostor who had come up, just as she was stepping
out of her carriage, and pretended to have a fit on the doorstep.
Aunt Margaret's lady, being a soft one, had insisted on the man
coming into the hall, where he had been given all kinds of
restoratives. When the man had at last gone off, it was found that
he had "wolfed" young master's best walking-stick, one with a fine
tortoise-shell top to it. Thus had Aunt Margaret proved to her lady
that the man had been shamming, and her lady had been very angry--
near had a fit herself!

"There's a lot of that about," said Chandler, laughing.
"Incorrigible rogues and vagabonds--that's what those sort of people
are!"

And then he, in his turn, told an elaborate tale of an exceptionally
clever swindler whom he himself had brought to book. He was very
proud of that job, it had formed a white stone in his career as a
detective. And even Mrs. Bunting was quite interested to hear about
it.

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