Dear Readers,

As I stated a bit earlier, should it be desired, I would post a bit of an explanation regarding this story. I firstly, of course, express my gratitude to all of those loyal readers who have so very promptly shared their feelings with me regarding the ending of the story. I appreciate all of your concerns so very much, and as a result I should be more than happy to address for you the questions that seem to repeatedly appear.

I must start off by saying that, in my mind's original version of this story, an ending was envisioned much like the one so many of you wanted to see. As some of you may recall, several weeks ago in a flurry of my usual chatter, I expressed that I had been inspired to remodel the ending to something different and thus set about doing so.

As for a reason for the change of heart, I assure you that it was by no means done to upset or surprise any of the interested readers. An observation that I had read long ago amidst some bit of Mary Poppins talk was suddenly recalled in my mind, and that idea was that there was no more tragic pairing than Mary and Bert. For as much as I wanted to post the ending originally devised, I found myself faced with the predicament that I could not. It is true that Mary Poppins' history had been revealed, but what of Bert's? For truly, while I dreamed up this entire tale, it was very much a present thought that the only character more mysterious than Mary herself was her chimney sweep friend. Surely a coupling could not solidly be formed while so great a mystery remained unanswered, and though part of me strongly disliked the idea, I decided that these two starcrossed lovers would have to wait just a bit longer. I must say here, however, that Bert (in my mind) would never leave so suddenly without a reason he deemed very good.

And so, parallel to my above thought, I must reveal that if an interest still be present, I shall try to create the second half of this quirky tale of mine. For several weeks, since my new ending was decided upon, I have been dreaming up the nature of such a sequel. As my mind tends to work, some of the final ideas for the supposed story have been sketched, though the plot seems to be quite a complexity in and of itself. While I should not wish to start a story until it is all (nearly) solidly formulated, I do insist that the last people I should ever want to disappoint are the readers who have stuck by me through all of the disappointing curves I have thrown you. And so, should you be interested, I will try to continue on in as timely a fashion as possible, and perhaps a better ending will be reached for both Mary and Bert.

All in all, I should like to take this opportunity yet again to thank absolutely everyone who has stuck by this story through my bloopers and goofs, and who has been so amazingly supportive and kind. I know I do not deserve it, and I should hate to do you wrong! My endless gratitude!

Always,

Margo Duncan