And so on, for perhaps a full hour.  Martie, smiling over her darning, would hear Alice’s gratifying, “Well, for pity!” and “Did you ever!” at intervals.  Sometimes she herself contributed something, a similar case in New York, perhaps, but the others were not interested.  They knew, without ever having expressed it, that there is no intimacy like that of a small village, no novelty or horror that comes so closely home to the people of the Eastern metropolis as did these Monroe events to their own lives.

Martie loved her sister, and they came to understand each other’s ways perfectly.  Teddy was happy with Aunt Lyd when his mother was at the Library, and Lydia liked her authority over the child and his companionship.  There was no peace in the old house, for all her silent meekness, unless Lydia’s curious sense of justice was satisfied, and Martie took pains to satisfy it.

One memorable day, just before Christmas, Martie opened a small package, to find John Dryden’s book.  She was in the Library when Miss Fanny came in with the mail, and her hand trembled as she cut the strings.  The flimsy tissue paper jacket blew softly over her hand; a dark blue book, slim, dignified:  “Mary Beatrice.”

He had not autographed it, but then John would never think of doing so.  Martie smiled her motherly smile at the memory of his childish dependence upon her suggestions as to the smaller points of living.  Her letter of congratulation began to run through her mind as she turned the title page.

Suddenly her heart stopped beating.  She wet her lips and glanced about.  Miss Fanny had gone into the coat-room; nobody was near.

Oh, madman, madman!  He had dedicated it to her!  A detected felony could not have given Martie a more sinking sensation than she experienced at the sight.

Her initials:  M. S. B.—­she need puzzle only a second over the selection, for her letters to him were always signed, “Martha Salisbury, Bannister.”  And under the initials, this: 

Even as to Caesar, Cassar’s toll, To God what in us is divine; So to your soul above my soul Whatever life finds good in mine.  Martie read the four lines as many times, then she lifted the page to her cheek, and held it there, shutting her eyes, and drawing a deep, ecstatic breath.

“Oh, John, John, how wonderful of you!” she whispered, her heart rising on a swift, triumphant flight.  Ah, this was something to have brought from the long years; this counted in that inner tribunal of hers.

After awhile she began to turn the pages, wishing that she were a better judge of all these phrases.  The play was short:  three brief acts.

“I think it’s wonderful!” Martie decided.  “I know it is!”