I can impress this visit upon your mind quite as indelibly
as your unwelcome visits in Halifax," and she slipped the loose leaves into
her pocket.

Still, as yet she had no definite plan in her mind as to how she would play
her game of retaliation; but during the evening she heard her father
inquire how long Mr. Plaisted intended to remain in the town.

"I leave the day after to-morrow," Plaisted replied. "I have an appointment
in H---- on the fifteenth."

"Oh, to-morrow is St. Valentine's day!" cried Gussie. "I really had
forgotten it. You must send me a valentine to remember you by"--this to
Plaisted, who had seated himself beside her on the sofa.

"Am I likely to be forgotten without some reminder?" was the low-spoken
reply. "I was hoping something quite different."

The mention of valentines gave Dexie an idea, and during the evening she
visited several stores where these tokens of sentiment were kept for sale,
but found nothing in the shape of a picture that would suit the verses of
tender sentiment so touchingly expressed for her beloved Shadrach by the
fair widow.

As she was returning home she passed a little shop, the windows of which
were decorated with valentines of the one and two cent variety, and one of
these caught her attention. It was one of the most common sort, and showed
in variegated colors a large fish with two tails for legs, two elongated
fins for arms, on one of which was a basket containing some smaller
specimens of its own species, while the other held to its mouth the
melodious fish-horn that delights our ears every morning.

Purchasing this caricature of a shad, she pasted below it a version of the
affectionate lines of Widow Bedott; then enclosing it in an elaborate
envelope, she addressed it with many flourishes to:

"MR. DANUEL SHADRACH PLAISTED,"

and carried it herself to the post office.

As she passed the fish market her attention was attracted by some very fine
shad displayed for sale, and they immediately suggested a further means of
accomplishing her revenge, so she ordered a supply.

Dexie sought her mother directly she arrived home.

"Don't you think we might ask Mr. Plaisted to dinner to-morrow, mamma?" she
asked.

"Please yourself, Dexie; but if he is asked, you must see about the dinner
yourself. It will not do to trust Eliza to get up anything extra, you
know."

"The dinner shall be well served, but I have a favor to ask, mamma. If Mr.
Plaisted is present,