`` And you are delighted , of course , and my poor pride must be the scapegoat . I shall always be remembered in Grafton as the man from Boston who wanted Theodora Dix and could n't get her . '' `` But that wo n't be true , you know , '' said Anne comfortingly . Arnold Sherman thought of Theodora 's ripe beauty , and the mellow companionableness she had revealed in their brief intercourse . `` I 'm not perfectly sure of that , '' he said , with a half sigh . II . Old Lady Lloyd I . The May Chapter Spencervale gossip always said that `` Old Lady Lloyd '' was rich and mean and proud . Gossip , as usual , was one-third right and two-thirds wrong . Old Lady Lloyd was neither rich nor mean ; in reality she was pitifully poor -- so poor that `` Crooked Jack '' Spencer , who dug her garden and chopped her wood for her , was opulent by contrast , for he , at least , never lacked three meals a day , and the Old Lady could sometimes achieve no more than one . But she WAS very proud -- so proud that she would have died rather than let the Spencervale people , among whom she had queened it in her youth , suspect how poor she was and to what straits was sometimes reduced . She much preferred to have them think her miserly and odd -- a queer old recluse who never went anywhere , even to church , and who paid the smallest subscription to the minister 's salary of anyone in the congregation . `` And her just rolling in wealth ! '' they said indignantly . `` Well , she did n't get her miserly ways from her parents . THEY were real generous and neighbourly . There never was a finer gentleman than old Doctor Lloyd . He was always doing kindnesses to everybody ; and he had a way of doing them that made you feel as if you was doing the favour , not him . Well , well , let Old Lady Lloyd keep herself and her money to herself if she wants to . If she does n't want our company , she does n't have to suffer it , that 's all .
Reckon she is n't none too happy for all her XXXXX and pride . ''
Lady minister money people queer recluse scapegoat straits subscription two-thirds