"I don't know."
"'Tisn't as if she had good sense!"
"Well, maybe she hasn't. But I'll tell you one thing, Bob. We're not going to have any more melodrama about turning anybody out of this house. If Martha goes out of it, I go with her. You might as well understand that. She needs me more than you do. And she's going to have me, no matter what she does. No matter who she marries. If people talk about her, they've got to talk about me."
"You don't mean that, Emily. You'd never leave me. You're just talking wild."
"I'll never leave her! That's sure."
"I guess I got sort of excited, Emily. I know this is your home. I didn't mean anything—much. I'm going to see Fairbanks. I'll do all I can, Emily. It's a dirty mess for you, that she's got herself in."
"But the worst of it is—she's in love, Bob!"
"She'll have to get over it; that's all there is to it."
It seemed so simple to Bob. Emily sat still for a minute, thinking batteredly, after he went. She was thinking that she must be careful. She would think it all over, all this sickening confusion, before she went up to talk to Martha. But Martha apparently had been listening for her father's departure. For no sooner had his car started away than she called down, eagerly:
"Mammie! Come up here."