xhausted by heat and cruelly athirst.

While she was away, Beth had made many good resolutions about behaving
herself on her return. Aunt Victoria had talked to her seriously on
the subject. Beth could be good enough when she liked: she did all
that her aunt expected of her; why could she not do all that her
mother expected? Beth promised she would; and was beginning already to
keep her promise faithfully by being as troublesome as possible, which
was all that her mother ever expected of her. Whether or not thoughts
are things which have power to produce effects, there are certainly
people who answer to expectation with fatal facility, and Beth was one
of them. Eventually she resisted with all her own individuality, but
at this time she acted like an instrument played upon by other
people's minds. This peculiar sensitiveness she turned to account in
after life, using it as a key to character; she had merely to make
herself passive, when she found herself reflecting the people with
whom she conversed involuntarily; and not as they appeared on the
surface, but as they actually were in their inmost selves. In her
childhood she unconsciously illustrated the thoughts people had in
their minds about her. Aunt Victoria believed in her and trusted her,
and when they were alone together, Beth responded to her good opinion;
Mrs. Caldwell expected her to be nothing but a worry, and was not
disappointed. When Beth was in the same house with both aunt and
mother, she varied, answering to the expectation that happened to be
strongest at the moment. That afternoon Aunt Victoria was tired after
her journey, and did not think of Beth at all; but Mrs. Caldwell was
busy in her own mind anticipating all the trouble she would have now
Beth was back; and Beth, standing on the box under the attic skylight,
with her head out, straining her eyes to seaward, was seized with a
sudden impulse which answered to her mother's expectation. That first
day she ought to have stayed in, unpacked her box, exhibited her
beautiful needlework, got ready for dinner in good time, and proved
her affection for her mother and sister by making herself agreeable to
them; but instead of that, she stole downstairs, slipped out by the
back-gate, and did not return until long after dinner was over.

She did not enjoy the scamper, however. Her home-sickness was gone,
but her depression returned nevertheless, as the day declined, only in
another form. She had still that