Madame Bay's style of cleaning was simple. Rearrange the dust. Waltz with the hoover . Why move a pile of books when you can dust around them ? Settle down with a large cup of coffee and look at the pictures in Country Life. Chat to the dogs.Turn on Radio Nostalgie.
Caroline is very different. She does one room at a time. She washes chair legs. Curtains are hoovered. Kitchen surfaces are completely cleared then polished. She arrives in cargo pants and tee shirt and changes into another set of cargo pants and tee shirt in the laundry room The process is reversed before she goes home. She wears head phones. When these are on the four horsemen of the apocalypse could arrive at the garden gate and not be heard.
Caroline has a habit of saying " You should have seen the dust on top of the mirror. It can't have been cleaned in years ! ". So far we have kept Caroline and Madame Bay apart. The thought of them meeting is a bit like the thought of a firework party in a gunpowder factory. Madame Bays trip to Boston provides at least ten days free from concern that there may be an accidental meeting.
