"You needn't laugh that way," said Arethusa defensively. "You don't know what Aunt 'Liza can be like when she's mad! If you did, you wouldn't laugh!"
"But I do," he replied, "I do. That's the reason I laugh. It brings her back to me so plainly."
It had brought her back to Arethusa very plainly also. She remembered some Instructions Miss Eliza had given, which the time had come to carry out.
"I must lie down and rest now," she said to Elinor.
"Are you very tired, dear? We'll go right up to your room."
"No, I'm really not a bit tired," explained Arethusa, as she scrambled to her feet to start upstairs, "not the very weeniest bit. But Aunt 'Liza said I must lie down and rest just as soon as I got here."
Elinor looked a trifle puzzled. "But if you're really not tired...."
"But I must rest. Aunt 'Liza said so."
Arethusa was sure that she had disobeyed Miss Eliza enough for one day, in the forgetting what she had said about strange men and the attitude to be adopted towards them, and she had gone on from that to lose her purse. There was no telling how long Miss Eliza's arm might be, how far her wrath might reach. It was best not to tempt Providence.
She would rest.