Excerpt from A Wild-Cat Scheme<br><br>Kate parker came tripping down the front stairs of Greystones House, in the little village of Greystones, in Dorsetshire, feeling light-hearted, although it was only six o'clock, and a cold morning in March.<br><br>Kate was not allowed to go down the front stairs at this unhallowed hour. In fact, as under housemaid, she was never allowed to go down them at all for her own convenience, she was only allowed to sweep and polish them for the upper housemaid's convenience. She and Elsie, the kitchenmaid, took turns to be the first of the household up in the morning, to open the back door in good time, because the cook, Mrs. Crutcher and her husband, the under-gardener, slept in a cottage, on the other side of the stable-yard, and woe betide the luckless Wight who had not opened the door before Mrs. Crutcher arrived Life was not worth living for several days afterwards, because Mrs. Crutcher, though usually a most comfortable woman, when roused, had a sharp tongue and a still sharper eye for minor delinquencies.<br><br>About the Publisher<br><br>Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com<br><br>This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.