Summary

Part 3 starts in May of 1902. Esme speaks with Lizzie and Mrs. Ballard about the word, “knackered.” Lizzie explains, “It’s not just tired from lack of sleep; it’s tired from work” (102). She goes on to explain how she wakes before everyone else and goes to sleep after everyone else. Esme takes a slip that had had “listless” on it, and crosses it out and puts “knackered” along with Lizzie’s quotation. Lizzie says, “Nothing I ever said has been written down” (103).

Esme, as narrator, explains how the slips came to be the size they were. Dr. Murray was looking for conformity so that no space would be wasted. Esme wonders what kind of slip she would be written on. She says it would probably be too long and the wrong color. “A scrap of paper that didn’t quite fit” (104).

Esme...