Dalia resumed her patrol of time, and took her STM back centuries into Brobdingnag’s past, into the time of Mrs Grimble, Olda, Alice, White Robert and the others, and concealed herself well, so that she could secretly study and monitor Brobdingnag’s earlier years.  While concentrating on Brobdingnag, she would observe many of the events in the times ahead, but she was not aware of other happenings in a large estate near the Robert Hole.

Pixi Smith had been adopted from an orphanage when he was 4 ½ years old, by a kind woman named Mrs Smith, whose children had grown up and moved out. Mrs Smith was a very wealthy woman, and owned the neighbouring property to her large estate. She did not wish to send Pixi away to school. She did her best to home school Pixi herself, until the boy was 6 ½ and needed to be taught more complex lessons. Mrs Smith decided to hire a governess to serve as both nanny and teacher to Pixi.

Venturing into the town, she soon learned that a young 27 year old American colonial widow named Mary Parkin had moved to England and was seeking work of a similar nature. Mrs Smith introduced herself, and interviewed Mrs Parkin for some time, and then introduced him to her adopted son Pixi, explaining that he would learn very quickly, as he had the intelligence and vocabulary of a boy approaching 20. This had been one of the main reasons that Mrs Smith was not confident to administer the rest of his education herself.

Mrs Mary Parkin took the position, which gave her temporary ownership of the neighbouring property. She got on well with Pixi, and they soon became good friends. She was tall, had long dark brown hair, and a natural sweetness which endeared herself to children. Mrs Smith had given her free reign of the family house as well, including the right to use the nursery wing as a classroom for schooling Pixi. When she was home, Mrs Smith would prepare lunch for both of them, and bring it to the nursery. Sometimes the boy and his governess would eat it in the nursery. On other days, they would go out into the garden and sit down on the chairs or the grass. One day Mrs Smith prepared two bowls of salad, with ham, baby tomatoes, cucumber, lettuce, onions and capsicum, and brought them out with spoons as well.

“This looks lovely,” said Mrs Parkin, as Mrs Smith returned to the house.

She dipped her spoon into the bowl and managed to scoop up a small piece of ham resting in a slightly curved piece of neatly cut lettuce, with a baby tomato on top of it. On the previous days, they had been served either sandwiches or bread rolls with other food inside them. Pixi hadn’t paid much attention to Mrs Parkin, as the two of them had bitten into the mixtures of bread and filling.

Mrs Parkin lifted the spoon to her mouth, and put out her tongue to receive the contents. For less than a second, as the food was still being lowered onto her tongue, Pixi glanced at a sight which took his breath away. He could not explain what he felt, and was far too shy or embarrassed to make mention of it. Yet nonetheless Mrs Parkin’s tongue created a sensation in him, which he had never known before. He watched eagerly, as she continued to manipulate the salad into her mouth with further use of the spoon, and it became clearer to him that he wanted to touch her tongue himself. Soon she was close to the bottom of the bowl, and a particularly long strip of lettuce would not remain on the spoon long enough for Mrs Parkin to deliver it into her mouth. After it had fallen off four times, he saw her pick it up between her finger and thumb, and then open her mouth to receive it.