all of her healthy young life that
Arethusa did not go to sleep just as soon as her head had touched the
pillow.

Over and over again her active imagination re-lived for her that scene
with Mr. Bennet, and her whole body seemed to burn with the Disgrace of
his Kiss. She writhed and twisted and turned in her bed, but she could
not get away from the Shame of it, anywhere; and the way Mr. Bennet had
looked when he had said she had misunderstood him.

Miss Eliza's convictions upon all subjects were most decided, but on no
single subject were they more decided than on this very one of a Kiss.
No Decent Woman, said Miss Eliza with a terrible emphasis, would allow
a man's lips to Touch hers, or permit him to embrace her, unless there
were Matrimonial Intentions.

But poor Arethusa's Intentions had all been Matrimonial, however Mr.
Bennet's, for with all her heart she had given of her very best. Her
shy building of air castles for the Perfect Bliss of Two, through all
these golden weeks just past, superinduced, one might say, by Mr.
Bennet's attitude of unmistakable delight in her companionship, had led
to this catastrophe of a misunderstanding.

And as the hours wore on the feeling of humiliation at having so
misunderstood with her thought that he had wanted to marry her when he
had Kissed her, grew and grew until it was almost unbearable.

Then, quite suddenly, she sat bolt upright in bed. For an Idea
concerning Mr. Bennet, no longer prefixed the Wonderful, had wormed
itself into her brain without her having the slightest conception how
it had got there, and now it presented itself to her, fully formed.

_Mr. Bennet was very decidedly one of the very sort of men Miss Eliza
had been so careful to warn her against!_

He was one of those Awful Male Beings who were nice to girls to win
their affections, only to deceive them!

No one in the world could have been nicer to any girl than Mr. Bennet
had been to her! And he had most certainly won her Affections! And she
had most certainly been completely deceived! His had been the Kiss of a
Judas! So Arethusa would undoubtedly have named it had she known any of
the classification of Kisses. But one thing about the Whole Affair
loomed Large and Certain; she had gone contrary to Miss Eliza's
Expressed Wishes once more! And this time, it was with what Dire
Results!

This made it twice that she had lapsed from the path pointed out for
her treading in her intercourse with the me