"I don't need spies. I just keep my eyes and ears open."
I wondered in my heart whether she had heard of the marriage, and as if she read the question in my mind, she answered it.
"I thought I'd like to know one thing, though," she observed with the air of one who candidly concedes that he is not infallible. "I'd like to know how the new Mrs. Webbe takes his marrying her."
"Aunt Naomi," I burst out in astonishment, "you are a witch, and ought to be looked after by the witch-finders."
Aunt Naomi laughed, and her eyes twinkled at the agreeable compliment I paid to her cleverness. Then she suddenly became grave.
"I am not sure, Ruth," she said, "that I should be willing to have your responsibility in making him marry such a girl."
I disclaimed the responsibility entirely, and declared I had not even suggested the marriage. I told her he had done it for the sake of the child, and that the proposition was his, and his only.
She sniffed contemptuously, with an air which seemed to cast doubts on my sanity.
"Very likely he did, and I don't suppose you did suggest it in words; but it's your doing all the same."
"I will not have the responsibility put on me," I protested. "It isn't for me to determine what Tom Webbe shall do."