“How long was it before you took that letter out of your stocking?”
“After I’d got downstairs.”
“What did you do with it?”
“Burnt it in the fireplace.”
“How did you bum it?”
“Why,” she said, “I touched a match to it. How does anyone ever bum things?”
“That isn’t what I mean. What did you do with the ashes?”
“Why, left them in the fireplace, of course.”
“Did you take a poker or a stick or anything and break them up?”
“No, I set fire to the letter, saw it was burning, and then tossed it into the fireplace. It flamed up all at once and singed my hair a little.”