Jane Actually

people, the same buildings and the same pervading sense of ordinariness.”
    He must have sensed something change in her manner, which he perceived as renewed agitation about the storm.
    “Perhaps we should play a game,” he said. “Do you know Ghost, Miss Heywood?”
    “What, Ghost in the Graveyard?” Mrs Parker asked. Charlotte felt her partner’s grip relax and also saw Mr Parker nod approvingly. He knew his wife’s fondness for games.
    “No, I hardly think we can play that,” Mr Sidney Parker said, although he smiled at the thought of the childhood game and at the thought of Mrs Parker chasing them about her drawing-room and shouting “You’re the ghost!”
    “No, sister,” Miss Parker said. “Sidney would have us play Ghost where we start a word with a letter and each player supplies another letter and the player who completes a word loses that round. We played this game when children. Sidney always won.”
    “Oh yes,” Mrs Parker said, although Charlotte thought with less than enthusiasm. She suspected her hostess would prefer some simpler game like Bullet Pudding or perhaps cards. But Charlotte approved of his suggestion for the mental occupation of Ghost should prove a superior divertissement. She thought, however, of an improvement.
    “Perhaps we might play Ghost Magna,” she said, and was pleased when she saw his eyebrow rise.
    “And how is that played?” he asked.
    “Almost exactly the same, but the player can add a letter both after and before.”
    “That does sound fun and may give us an advantage over Sidney,” Mr Parker said. “His mind does move from one thing to the next and never back.”
    “Then Miss Heywood should start, for it is her suggestion,” Mr Sidney Parker said.
    She nodded and said, “Very well. I begin with ‘O.’ Shall we go counter-clockwise?”
    She made that suggestion because then Mrs Parker would be next, making it an easy round for her.
    Mrs Parker supplied the letter “G,” obviously relieved that she would not be challenged.
    “Is that before or after?” Miss Parker asked.
    “Oh, I don’t … after. ‘O-G.’”
    Miss Susan Parker supplied “O-G-Y,” and Miss Parker supplied “L-O-G-Y.”
    Mr Parker predictably prefixed another “O” and then Mr Sidney Parker said, “My apology, Miss Heywood, if you will accept it. ‘P-O-L-O-G-Y.’”
    “I do not accept it, sir, for I can preface it with another ‘O.’” She smiled broadly at this and thought if she were still with long curls and he were her brother she would stick out her tongue at him.
    Mrs Parker thought for a second, and then another, before she said brightly, “‘R-O-P-L’ … no, that is not right. ‘R-O-P-O-L-O-G-Y!’”
    Miss Susan Parker made it “H-R-O-P-O-L-O-G-Y” and attempted to pronounce it, much to her own amusement. Miss Parker made it “T-H-R-O-P-O-L-O-G-Y.” Mr Parker supplied the “N” and Mr Sidney Parker sighed with mock tragedy and completed the word as “A-N-T-H-R-O-P-O-L-O-G-Y.”
    “I appear to be the ghost,” he said ruefully.
    “That is the ‘G’ for you, Mr Sidney,” Charlotte said, unnecessarily confirming what he’d already said.
    “But in Ghost Magna, one must collect ten letters before one is out,” he said, betraying his knowledge of the variant.
    “Oh Lord, is that true?” Mr Parker asked with laughter. “We’ll be here all night.”
    To which they all laughed and their laughter made them ignore the wind and the rain and the lightning and the thunder.

Persuasion
Somewhere there must be cats
    “Y es, I would love another cookie,” Courtney said, wondering how he would choke down another indigestible digestive biscuit. 1
    “No dear, it’s a biscuit,” Mrs Westerby said for the third time, charmed by her American visitor. He had already eaten four biscuits and she hoped he might have another, which would finish the bag. After all, it had been opened some time ago and what with the damp, the biscuits had lost some of their crisp.
    Courtney sipped his weak tea to help wash down the biscuit, and hoped he could get the old woman back on track.
    “So your mother got the letter from who?”
    “From whom, dear. Let’s see, that was Major Gorrell-Barmes. That’s with an ‘M,’” she specified for Courtney who was trying to write this on a notepad while balancing his cup of tea.
    “And it’s been in the frame for how long?”
    “Oh, as far as I can remember, and mother says … well said, it had been in the frame