"Ain't I told you," demanded Miss Mehitable, "how one woman went up there when she had no business to go and got burnt so awful that she has to wear a veil all the rest of her life?"
"Yes, you told me, Aunt Hitty, but, you see, I didn't get burned."
"Araminta Lee, you're going right straight to hell, just as fast as you can get there. Perdition is yawning at your feet. Didn't that blackmailing play-doctor come home with you?"
"Ralph," Said Araminta—and the way she spoke his name made it a caress—"Ralph came home with me."
"I saw you comin' home," continued Miss Mehitable, with her sharp eyes keenly fixed upon the culprit. "I saw his arm around your waist and you leanin' your head on his shoulder."
"Yes," laughed Araminta, "I haven't forgotten. I can feel his arms around me now."
"And at the gate—you needn't deny it, for I saw it all—he KISSED you!"
"That's right, Aunt Hitty. At his house, he kissed me, too, lots and lots of times. And," she added, her eyes meeting her accuser's clearly, "I kissed him."
"How do you suppose I feel to see such goin's on, after all I've done for you?"
"You needn't have looked, Aunty, if you didn't like to see it."