She says they may get to be too common.' Bye and bye it comes Lydia's turn to decide what place she and her new husband are to take in Endbury society, and here is what one frank, sensible man says about it: 'It may be all right for Marietta Mortimer to kill herself body and soul by inches to keep what bores her to death to have--a social position in Endbury's two-for-a-cent society, but, for the Lord's sake, why do they make such a howling and yelling just at the tree when Lydia's got the tragically important question to decide as to whether that's what _she_ wants?
It's like expecting her to do a problem in calculus in the midst of an earthquake.' And the following chapter is a graphic presentation as to how Lydia made her choice "in perfect freedom"-- oh, the frightful sarcasm of the phrase--during the excitement of the wedding preparations and under the pressure of expensive gifts and the ideas of over enthusiastic "society" friends.
Lydia now began her own "squirrel-cage" existence, even her husband urges her into extravagance in spite of her protest by saying, "Nothing's too good for you.

And besides, it's an asset.

The mortgage won't be so very large.

And if we're in it, we'll just have to live up to it.

It'll be a stimulus." One of the sane characters of the book is dear, lovable, gruff Mr.
Melton, who is Lydia's godfather, and her final awakening is largely due to him.