"Great Scott!" shouted the young man, coming out into the hall and closing the door of the bedroom. "You don't suppose for a moment I want such a story circulated among our friends, do you? No fear!"
He started down the stairs, pulling his cap over his ears and buttoning his automobile coat up to his throat.
"For love's sake!" again gasped the troubled spinster, who still held the girl in her arms.
"Hold on! Hold on!" exclaimed Tobias. "'Tain't fit for to turn a dog out into this storm."
"I don't care!" cried the hysterical girl wildly. "He never should have let the car stall in that snowdrift. He should have gone on to Clinkerport alone instead of making a nuisance of himself around here."
The lower door banged as punctuation to her speech.
Tobias started to descend the stair. His sister motioned him commandingly toward the door of the best room.
"You find some way to stopper that window, Tobias," she said, "and then go back to your lamp. You can't do no good interfering in this."
She led the sobbing girl into her own room and closed the door. The lightkeeper shook his head.
"I give it as my opinion," he muttered, "that women folks is as hard to understand as the Chinee language. And they begin their finicking mighty airly."