"No," she interrupted, "I don't believe Mother Anastasia could do it."
"And what followed," I continued, "was perfectly natural, and could not possibly be helped. You were obliged to defend yourself, and in so doing you were obliged to act just as any other woman would act. Nothing else would have been possible, and the talking and all that came in with the rest. You couldn't help it."
"That's the way the matter appeared to me," said she; "but the question would arise, if it were all right, why should I hesitate to tell the sisters?"
"Hesitate!" I exclaimed. "You should not even think of such a thing. No matter what the sisters really thought about it, I am sure they would not let you come here any more, and you would be sent to the measles institution, and thus actually be punished for the attempted wickedness of a wasp."
"But there is the other side of the matter," said she; "would it not be wicked in me not to tell them?"
"Not at all," I replied. "You do not repeat to the sisters all that I tell you to write?"
"Of course not," she interrupted.
"And you do not consider it your duty," I continued, "to relate every detail of the business in which you are employed?"
"No," she said. "They ask me some things, and some things I have mentioned to them, such as not having a gold pen."
"Very good," said I. "You should consider that defending yourself against wasps is just as much your business here as anything else. If you are stung, it is plain you can't write, and the interests of your employer and of the House of Martha must suffer."