"Well, mother was born in Vermont, you know; she was the only child by a second marriage. Aunt Hannah and Aunt Maria are only half-aunts to me, you know."
"I hope they are half as nice as you are."
"Roger, be still; they certainly will hear us."
"Well, don't you want them to know we are married?"
"Yes, but not just married. There's all the difference in the world."
"You are afraid we look too happy!"
"No; only I want my happiness all to myself."
"Well, the little room?"
"My aunts brought mother up; they were nearly twenty years older than she. I might say Hiram and they brought her
up. You see, Hiram was bound out to my grandfather when he was a boy, and when grandfather died Hiram said he 's'posed he went with the farm, 'long o' the critters,' and he has been there ever since. He was my mother's only refuge from the decorum of my aunts. They are simply workers. They make me think of the Maine woman who wanted her epitaph to be, 'She was a hard working woman.'"