Short story: Haughty client didn’t see her own demise coming

Oscar O’Neill’s practice was in a part of the country where manners were considered by many to be especially important. It seemed to Oscar, however, that for some the definition of manners had more to do with things like how to eat an artichoke than actually being nice, or even polite, to others.

Mrs Elizabeth Bullingdon-Parker only visited Oscar’s practice on one occasion, but she made quite an impression. She had brought her son Hugo, 14, because one of the teachers at his public school thought she saw him squinting. Accompanied by her daughter Amelia, 10, Mrs B-P arrived 10 minutes late for Hugo’s appointment with an air of disdain which suggested that she was the one who’d been kept waiting. She answered the questions of Valerie Warren, the receptionist, in the manner of a Victorian dowager duchess speaking to her maid. Fortunately, the appointment book was quite thin that afternoon, so her lateness didn’t actually matter too much.