It was just when the pudding came on that I got the most unkindest cut of all . Mrs. Allardyce remarked that Sidney Elliot was coming home to Stillwater . Everybody exclaimed and questioned and seemed delighted . I saw Mother give one quick , involuntary look at Jen , and then gaze steadfastly at Mr. Grant to atone for it . Jen is twenty-six , and Stillwater is next door to our place ! As for me , I was so vexed that I might as well have been eating chips for all the good that Nesselrode pudding was to me . If Sidney Elliot were coming home everything would be spoiled . There would be no more ramblings in the Stillwater woods , no more delightful skating on the Stillwater lake . Stillwater has been the only place in the world where I could find the full joy of solitude , and now this , too , was to be taken from me . We had no woods , no lake . I hated Sidney Elliot . It is ten years since Sidney Elliot closed Stillwater and went abroad . He has stayed abroad ever since and nobody has missed him , I 'm sure . I remember him dimly as a tall dark man who used to lounge about alone in his garden and was always reading books . Sometimes he came into our garden and teased us children . He is said to be a cynic and to detest society . If this latter item be a fact I almost feel a grim pity for him . He may detest it , but he will be dragged into it . Rich bachelors are few and far between in Riverton , and the mammas will hunt him down . I feel like crying .
If Sidney Elliot comes home I shall be debarred XXXXX Stillwater .
If at for from into like of on since to