tened to Mrs. Fowler's
unflagging efforts to "get on" with the judge's wife. Never had the
dauntless little woman revealed more surprising resourcefulness, never
had she talked so vivaciously, never had she appeared so relentlessly
pleasant. It was as if she said in the face of Mrs. Crowborough's
insensibility, which was the insensibility not of mind, but of inanimate
matter, "Whatever you do, you can't keep me from being sweet." And in
this strained sweetness there was something touching, something wistful,
a hint of inner weariness which showed now and then beneath the restless
vivacity.

"Isn't it funny," said Patty suddenly, "how much mamma cares about
things that don't matter at all? You wouldn't believe it to look at her,
but she is in her heart the most worldly one of the family. Father
wouldn't give a tallow candle for anything that isn't real."

A log broke in the centre, and fell, scattering a shower of golden
embers over the hearth. Rising quickly, with one of her sprightly
movements, Mrs. Fowler reached for a pair of small brass tongs and
pushed the broken log back on the andirons. Then she threw some fresh
wood on the flames, and resumed her seat with an animated gesture as if
the incident had enlivened her.

"Now they are talking about the everlasting Pletheridges," whispered
Patty. "I never understand how mother can take so much interest in those
people just because they are rich."

But to Gabriella it was more inconceivable still that her mother-in-law,
with the bluest blood of Virginia in her veins, should regard with such
artless reverence the social activities of the granddaughter of a
tavern-keeper. In her native State an impoverished branch of Mrs.
Fowler's family still lived on land which, tradition said, had been
granted one of her ancestors by Charles the Second in recognition of
distinguished services to that dubious monarch; yet she could long
enviously for a closer acquaintance with the plutocratic descendant of
an Irish tavern-keeper--an honest man, d

Martha Finley (1828 - 1909) was a teacher and author of numerous works, the most well known being the 28 volume Elsie Dinsmore series which was published over a span of 38 years. The daughter of Presbyterian minister Dr. James Brown Finley and his wife and cousin Maria Theresa Brown Finley, she was born on April 26th, 1828 in Chillicothe, Ohio. Finley wrote many of her books under the psodonym Martha Farquharson. She died in 1909 in Elkton, Maryland, where she moved in 1876.

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