The Way Things Are

First published in 1928. Laura Temple faces the predicaments of many British middle-class wives and mothers living in country villages between the World Wars. Her too-large house, inherited by her husband Alfred, requires three servants to keep it running: generally unsatisfactory servants whom she is perpetually concerned will leave her employ for greener pastures, which they inevitably do. Her modest success as a short story writer helps augment their income but still, there is never enough money. She is a devoted mother to her two sons, although she shamelessly prefers one over the other. And she is deeply unhappy. But her malaise disappears when, on a trip to London in search of yet another domestic replacement, she and Duke Ayland, a friend of her sister, fall in love. Laura has never been in love before—although she is very fond of Alfred. And she could never leave her children. At least, one of them. Written several years before E.M. Delafield’s witty The Diary of a Provincial Lady, Laura is unquestionably a precursor to that famous lady. And although her dilemmas are more serious, the author’s sardonic humor shines through in the antics and personalities of Laura’s group of eccentric friends and neighbors.