What he had not anticipated was the action taken by his aunt. Left to herself she would have remained credulous to the end; but Kezia declared Mr. George was not spending his days letter writing; while Bessie stated the postmistress had told her Mr. George had bought no stamps lately.
"I have looked into his room and seen him writing," said Mrs. Drake despairingly.
"He wur doing poetry, mum," said Kezia sadly.
"Oh, I'm sure he's not so bad as that," cried the lady.
"I don't want to say too much, mum, and I ain't going to say anything against Mr. George, whom you might call a member of the family," continued Kezia in the voice of doom, "but I saw a lot of the paper he had wrote some of his poetry on."
"I saw it too, mum," chimed in Bessie.
"And, mum, at the end of the first line wur six kisses."
"Crosses, mum," exclaimed Bessie, as an expert in this form of literature.
"And the second line—oh, mum, I don't know as how I can say it."
"Shall I do it vor ye?" asked Bessie eagerly.