Mr. Owen is reading Emma, his favorite book. He has, in fact, been reviewing it for several days so that the details will be fresh in his mind for this afternoon's meeting. He has laid the book open on the kitchen table, and when he runs across a passage he thinks his wife would like, he reads it aloud.

""Human nature is so well disposed toward those who are in interesting situations,"" he says, ""that a young person, who either marries or dies, is sure to be kindly spoken of." You remember this now, don't you, Alma? Mr. Elton is going to marry Augusta Hawkins, and she'll become Mrs. Elton. I know you'll remember her—the odious Mrs. Elton?"

Alma looks at him for a moment, sets her mouth in a tiny O, then looks away.