She did not like Mr. Marsden. She had never liked him, but she had tried to please him—tried to win his approval by being the best. And though she needed to know what it was exactly that he was accusing her of, she knew he had not told the agent of those encounters. So, it was something else she had done wrong. She would have asked Mrs. Bedlow, but she was afraid the word would come out “turpentine” and Mrs. Bedlow would laugh. She couldn’t bear to be laughed at, not just now.

“I’ll be out of my room by tomorrow—the next day at the latest.”

“But where will you go?” Don’t worry for me. I can’t stand it if you are kind, I might break down.

“Back to housekeeping, I reckon.” That was it. Triphena would be sure to take her in.

She went to the bank and withdrew all her money—243 dollars and 87 pence. Then she went to the bookstore. She wanted to give Brigid a copy of Oliver Twist even if the girl couldn’t really read it yet. She’d be able to in time.

“Will there be anything else for you today, Miss Worthen?” They were friends now, the bookseller and she. She hesitated, but what did it matter? She would never be in again. “Do you have a book that—that tells the meanings of words?”

“Ah,” he said, “We have an old Alexander dictionary, of course, and then there’s Webster’s and Worcester’s, which are more up-to-date.”

“I think I need a up-to-date one,” she said. She didn’t want to risk buying one that didn’t have the one word she needed.

The bookseller got down two fat books, Parts I and II of An American Dictionary of the English Language and then a third. “Many people prefer the Worcester,” he said, indicating the third book. “It’s a bit newer. And all in the one volume.” Lyddie paid for the Worcester and forced herself to take it out of the shop before opening it.

As soon as she was out of sight of the bookshop window, she rested her parcels on the sidewalk and opened the dictionary. It took her some time to find the word. The pages were thin and her fingers calloused and clumsy, and she did not know the spelling. But she found it at last.

What? She would have howled in the street had it not been so crowded with passersby. She was not a vile or shameful character! She was not base or depraved. She was only ignorant, and what was the sin in that? He was the evil one to accuse her of such. She had done nothing evil, only foolish.