THE GOLD-LINED BOX

The Gold-Lined Box is a snuffbox, given to sixteen-year-old Matilda by an awesome British admiral when she goes to save her father--both she and the incident really happened in Havre de Grace during the War of 1812 (actually in 1813). The rest of it, a flaky Southern biscuit with lots of butter, is about Matilda's at first distant worship for David Poole of Langley Hall, ye local noble family, and David's participation in the War as an informer, and her father's as head of the local militia. All with tossed heads, uptilted chins, stiff upper lips and a few aristocratic long noses.