In the short story Next to a Dog, Mrs Barnes is the landlady of Joyce Lambert. She is big and formidable-looking but also very kind. Near the beginning of the story, Joyce tells her dog Terry that she already owed Mrs Barnes four weeks rent. Mrs Barnes was "a lamb" but she could not go on taking advantage of her "being a lamb", especially as her husband had recently lost his job. This predicament would drive Joyce to some rather extreme measures.