'They spoil me,' she thought, half pleased, half shrinking. 'But why
am I here? Why have I come back? And what do I mean to do?'
CHAPTER XIII
These questions--'Why did I come back?--What am I going to do?' were
still ringing through Elizabeth's mind when, on the evening of her
return, she entered the library to find the Squire eagerly waiting
for her.
But the spectacle presented by the room quickly drove out other
matters. She stood aghast at the disorder which three weeks of the
Squire's management had brought about. Books on the floor and piled
on the chairs--a dusty confusion of papers everywhere--drawers open
and untidy--her reign of law seemed to have been wiped out.
'Oh, what a _dreadful_ muddle!'
The Squire looked about him--abashed.
'Yes, it's awful--it's all that fellow Levasseur. I ought to have
turned him out sooner. He's the most helpless, incompetent idiot.
But it won't take you very long to get straight? I'll do anything
you tell me.'
He watched her face appealingly, like a boy in a scrape.
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