In which the governess Miss Steet, encumbered by a dispirited air and the tacit constraints of decorum, quietly tends to the lively Berrington children within the genteel yet somewhat troubled household at Mellows. Amidst gentle reflections on English domestic arrangements and the spirited, candid chatter of the boys, Laura Wing observes with a mingled sense of wistfulness and critique the peculiar rhythms and undercurrents shaping this fragment of country life.