The death of an old lady at Birchington in Kent, named Mrs, Ward but it may be Mrs. Greatrex) has brought to light one of those records of eccentricity which are stranger than any novelist would venture to invent. You remember the horrible woman, an ex-wardress of a prison, in Agatha Christi "Death by Appointment," who terrorized her. whole family. But though she kept them under like convicts, she did at least keep them {in comfort and even took them for trip to Syria, where she was conveniently murdered, Mrs. Ward took her two daughters to Birchington 30 years and proceeded to live the lite of an anchorite and miser. They knew nobody in the village and never got to know anybody. They kept no servants and lived like paupers, with little furniture and most of the rooms all dirty and cobwebby. 'The two daughters were rarely allowed out of the house; they have' faint recollections of their father and of hearing that he died in 1895, but they never knew him, They knew nothing of their family, wore not sure of their mother's name, had no idea of how old they them: selves were. Their mother dealt with the tradesmen at the door, the daughters spoke to nobody. The vile Ingers thought them all mad and threw stones at the house, so the windows were barred up, making the house more a prison than ever.
And afler 30 years of this the mother has died "and is found to have left £25,000 which the sisters inherit as there was no will. More than middle-aged they begin to live at last. But think of the elementary things they have to learn, the value "money, the price of a mutton chop. They are staying on in the old house, cleaned "and renovated. One hopes Birchington will be kind to them. But what was the mystery their mother? Where Hercule Poirot?
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.