Miss Mapp — Edward Frederic Benson

Mrs Plaistow turned the corner below Miss Mapps window and went bobbing along down the steep hill She walked with the motion of those mechanical dolls sold in the street which have three legs set as spokes to a circle so that their feet emerge from their dress with Dutch and rigid regularity and her figure had a certain squat rotundity that suited her gait She distinctly looked into Captain Puffins dining room window as she passed and with the misplaced juvenility so characteristic of her waggled her plump little hand at it At the corner beyond Major Flints house she hesitated a moment and turned off down the entry into the side street where Mr Wyse lived The dentist lived there too and as Mr Wyse was away on the continent of Europe Mrs Plaistow was almost certain to be visiting the other Rapidly Miss Mapp remembered that at Mrs Bartletts bridge party yesterday Mrs Plaistow had selected soft chocolates for consumption instead of those stuffed with nougat or almonds That furnished additional evidence for the dentist for generally you could not get a nougat chocolate at all if Godiva Plaistow had been in the room for more than a minute or two