Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day / Winifred Watson

 

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I felt a certain kinship with Miss Pettigrew—although considerably younger when I arrived in the big city, I was an unsophisticated farm girl, green as grass, totally out of my element and doubting whether I would ever attain the confidence that many of my peers demonstrated. I had a roommate who took me in hand and got me herded in the right direction, just as Miss Le Fosse and Miss DuBarry do for Guinevere Pettigrew.

However, Miss P has been a governess for many years and has taken care of herself during that time. She has what we now call transferable skills. She can cook an unexpected breakfast, find a way to heave a man out the door, convince the next fellow that those cheroots were hers, and manage a pouting young man back to his fiancée. And she is absolutely masterful at any of these tasks once she has a bit of alcohol in her. It overcomes her hesitations and self-doubts and allows her inner extremely competent governess out to deal with things. If you can run a classroom of small children, manipulating adults (who have ideas of social niceties) is easy, if you have the aplomb to carry it off. Frankly, a tot of something before facing the children would likely have made her into a better governess.

There is much to be said for being ladylike, but if it isn't working for you, letting go of it is the right move. Learning to dress, wear make-up, hold her liquor, and make conversation…that's a lot to absorb in a day. That tells me that Miss P is an intelligent, adaptable woman who has been denied advantages by the polite class. It's the not-so-polite-society folks who see her worth and her talent. Her inexperience shows and amuses them, but they don't hold it against her, in fact they encourage her, mentor her.

I found myself moved by the kindness of these people who had only known Guinevere for less than a day. And I loved Joe. I think that Watson stopped the novel at the perfect spot, where the potential for happiness is clear but we don't need to dwell on the detail. What a charming story!


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