Saki Collection ─ The Schartz-metterklume Method, Tobermory

The Schartz-Metterklume Method: In this story, Mrs. Caball, the "grand dame" of a society family, mistakes Lady Carlotta for the governess she has come to meet at the train station. The Lady does nothing to correct her error. On being asked where her luggage is, she responds that "Someone lost it." One of Lady Carlotta's very excellent rules was, "the absent are always to blame." Lady Carlotta throws aside her own plans and becomes a very interesting governess, not at all what the family expected. She tells them that she will teach history on the "Schartz-Metterklume Method," to make children understand history by "acting it out themselves." When her first lesson involves the abduction of the Sabine women, it leads to some very amusing results - at least for Lady Carlotta.Tobermory: In "Tobermory," Cornelius Appin claims to have launched on the world an amazing discovery during a society dinner party. He has invented a means for instructing animals in the art of human speech, and the family cat, old Tobermory, proved to be his first successful pupil. However, when the professor demonstrates his success with Tobermory the results have consequences far beyond anything he expected.