words written there: "Lest we forget!" Beneath this pertinent
quotation appeared the initials "W. E."

"If it was for _me_ to say," went on Martha, in an injured tone, "I'd
not be for feedin' up every man, woman and child that shows their
face inside the grounds. Why, they don't appreciate it no more
than--"

The woman's eloquent gesture appeared to include the blue-bottle fly
buzzing noisily on the window-pane:

"Goodness gracious! if these flies ain't enough to drive a body
crazy--what with the new paint and all...."




Chapter XIII


Lydia laid the picture carefully away in a pigeonhole of her desk.
She was still thinking soberly of the subtle web of prejudices,
feelings and conditions into which she had obtruded her one fixed
purpose in life. But if Mr. Elliot had been as good as engaged to
Fanny Dodge, as Mrs. Solomon Black had been at some pains to imply,
in what way had she (Lydia) interfered with the dénouement?

She shook her head at last over the intricacies of the imperfectly
stated problem. The idea of coquetting with a man had never entered
Lydia's fancy. Long since, in the chill spring of her girlhood, she