Bliss

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 cushions and shut
her eyes, her lips trembling with laughter. Happily at that moment Mrs.
Samuel Josephs, who had been watching the scene from behind her
drawing-room blind, waddled down the garden path.
"Why nod leave the chudren with be for the afterdoon, Brs. Burnell?
They could go on the dray with the storeban when he comes in the
eveding. Those thigs on the path have to go, dod't they?"
"Yes, everything outside the house is supposed to go," said Linda
Burnell, and she waved a white hand at the tables and chairs standing
on their heads on the front lawn. How absurd they looked! Either they
ought to be the other way up, or Lottie and Kezia ought to stand on
their heads, too. And she longed to say: "Stand on your heads, children,
and wait for the store-man." It seemed to her that would be so
exquisitely funny that she could not attend to Mrs. Samuel Josephs.
The fat creaking body leaned across the gate, and the big jelly of a face
smiled. "Dod't you worry, Brs. Burnell. Loddie and Kezia can have tea
with my chudren in the dursery, and I'll see theb on the dray
afterwards."
The grandmother considered. "Yes, it really is quite the best plan. We

are very obliged to you, Mrs. Samuel Josephs. Children, say 'thank you'
to Mrs. Samuel Josephs."
Two subdued chirrups: "Thank you, Mrs. Samuel Josephs."
"And be good little girls, and--come closer--" they advanced, "don't
forget to tell Mrs. Samuel Josephs when you want to.... "
"No, granma."
"Dod't worry, Brs. Burnell."
At the last moment Kezia let go Lottie's hand and darted towards the
buggy.
"I want to kiss my granma good-bye again."
But she was too late. The buggy rolled off up the road, Isabel bursting
with pride, her nose turned up at all the world, Linda Burnell prostrated,
and the grandmother rummaging among the very curious oddments she
had had put in her black silk reticule at the last moment, for something
to give her daughter. The buggy twinkled away in the sunlight and fine
golden dust up the hill and over. Kezia bit her lip, but Lottie, carefully
finding her handkerchief first, set up a wail.
"Mother! Granma!"
Mrs. Samuel Josephs, like a huge warm black silk tea cosy, enveloped
her.
"It's all right, by dear. Be a brave child. You come and blay in the
dursery!"
She put her arm round weeping Lottie and led her away. Kezia
followed, making a face at Mrs. Samuel Josephs' placket, which was
undone as usual, with two long pink corset laces hanging out of it....
Lottie's weeping died down as she mounted the stairs, but the sight of
her at the nursery door with swollen eyes and a blob of a nose gave

great satisfaction to the S.J.'s, who sat on two benches before a long
table covered with American cloth and set out with immense plates of
bread and dripping and two brown jugs that faintly steamed.
"Hullo! You've been crying!"
"Ooh! Your eyes have gone right in."
"Doesn't her nose look funny."
"You're all red-and-patchy."
Lottie was quite a success. She felt it and swelled, smiling timidly.
"Go and sit by Zaidee, ducky," said Mrs. Samuel Josephs, "and Kezia,
you sid ad the end by Boses."
Moses grinned and gave