Today there was no letter and there were no biscuits. I took a sandwich from the plate on the kitchen table. “He watches me,” I said, taking a bite.

Lizzie looked up with raised eyebrows.

“Not in that way. Definitely not in that way. He can’t say good morning, but he has no trouble telling me where I’ve gone wrong with grammar or style. This morning he told me I’d taken liberties with a variant meaning of psychotic. In his opinion, females are prone to overstatement, and for that reason should not be employed where precision is needed.”

“Had you taken liberties?” she teased.

“It would never occur to me,” I replied, smiling.

Lizzie kept kneading.

“When I came back from lunch yesterday, he’d left a copy of Hart’s Rules on my desk. He’d pinned notes to my edits with the page numbers I should refer to in order to improve my corrections.”

“Are Hart’s Rules important?”

“They’re mainly for compositors and readers at the Press, but they help to make sure that everyone working on the Dictionary is writing in the same way, using the same spelling.”

“You mean there are different ways of writing and spelling?”

“I know it sounds like codswallop but there are, and the smallest thing can cause the biggest arguments.”

Lizzie smiled. “And what would the Rules say about codswallop?”

“Nothing; it’s not a valid word.”

“But you’ve written it on a slip. I remember you doing it, right here at this table.”

“That’s because it’s an excellent word.”

“Did it help? Him giving you the Rules?”

“No. It just makes me question myself at every turn. Things I knew for sure are suddenly confusing. I’m working more slowly and making more errors than ever.”

Lizzie shaped the dough and put it in a tin, then she dusted it with flour. She was assured in this, as she was with everything that needed doing in the kitchen. Since her last fall, Mrs. Ballard only came in to cook Sunday roast and write the lists for the weekly orders. Lizzie did everything else, though there were fewer Murrays to feed as the children were all grown and most had left. An occasional maid came most days to help in the house.

“Will you come with me to the market on Saturday?” Lizzie asked carefully. “Old Mabel’s been asking after you.”