Patience Sparhawk and her Times

The next morning Patience, after breakfast, carried a pair of tongs and a newspaper up to her room. She spread the newspaper on the table, then with the tongs extracted Byron from beneath the bed and laid it on the paper. She wrapped it up and tied it securely without letting her hands come in contact with the cover. That same afternoon she carried the book to the Custom House and threw it behind a row of tall volumes in one of the cases. Long after, Mr. Foord found it there and wondered. He was not at home when she arrived. When he returned she was deep in his arm-chair, reading Gibbon's "Rome. " He was not without tact, and determined at once to ignore the events of the previous day and night.

"What! " he exclaimed, "are you really giving poor old Gibbon a trial at last? And after all your abuse? But perhaps you won't find him so dry, after all."