"He did!" Aunt Maria could not keep the eagerness out of her voice. "Well, let's sit down and eat."
After a short grace she turned to the girl. "Now then," she said as she helped herself generously to sausage and potatoes and handed the dishes across the table to Phœbe, "tell us about it."
"There isn't much to tell. I just told him that I can't renounce the pleasures of the world before I had a chance to take hold of them. I'm not ready yet to dress plain."
"Why aren't you ready?" asked the woman.
"Ach, don't ask me," Phœbe replied, speaking lightly in an effort to conceal her real feeling. "I just didn't come to that state yet. I want some more fun and pleasure before I think only of serious things."
"You're just like a big baby," her aunt said impatiently. "You can hurt a good man like Phares Eby and come home and laugh about it."
"Now, Maria," interposed the father, "let her laugh; she'll meet with crying soon enough, I guess."
But the woman could not be easily silenced. "Some day, Phœbe, you'll wish you'd been nicer to Phares."
"Why, I am nice to him."
"Well, anyhow, I think it's soon time you give up the world and its vanities," said Aunt Maria.