"It's disgusting. You ought to be spanked!"
"I'm not a child!"
"You certainly are!"
"I'm twenty in April."
"Can she know how that threat—yes, sheer threat of independence—hurts me?" Emily wondered.
"Oh, Martha, you mustn't be—you mustn't! It isn't fair. That woman is unhappy! She's haggard! She's sick, and she sees him playing about with you!"
"Am I so dangerous? Can't she even let him talk to a child?"
"I'm not going to argue with you. I've simply laid down the law, for once. You're not to be seen even talking with that man again. Do you understand that?"
"Yes."
"Didn't you understand it before?"