e! I'll go right straight to bed if you do!"

"Which wouldn't harm me at all, if you did," he whispered pleasantly in
reply, "just yourself. And Miss 'Liza wouldn't let you do it anyway,
even if I stayed and you wanted to. She'd say it was rude, and you know
it. But don't worry; keep your shirt on," he added, most inelegantly,
"I've got something else to do, so I'm going right on home." Then, very
meanly, for it was taking a rather unfair advantage, as Miss Eliza's
gimlet eyes were just then boring right through Arethusa to prevent any
outburst of suitable venom from her, "And, take it from me, Arethusa,
you won't stay long in Lewisburg."

He escaped to Miss Asenath's side to wheel the couch back into the
sitting-room, as Miss Eliza had risen just as he finished that last
speech and signified that supper was over. Arethusa remained seated for
a moment, speechless with wrath, and with that helpless, cheated
feeling she always experienced when the last word was Timothy's.

The rain had stopped, so the guest departed with immediacy for home,
wearing his borrowed clothing and carrying his own under his arm, much
to Arethusa's further ire. She considered that he might just as well
have changed before he left, for his own things had got perfectly dry
by the roaring kitchen stove.

Then came the lecture for her niece which had been steadily gathering
momentum with Miss Eliza for some little time. But Arethusa sat on the
end of Miss Asenath's couch, to hold her hand, and did not mind it
quite so much. Besides, in the depths of her conscience, she was
guiltily aware of rather deserving it.

After the atmosphere had cleared, conversation once more veered around
to the Letter, and the aunts sat in solemn consultation over it and the
proposed visit and Arethusa.

CHAPTER VI

One of the most agitating parts of this whole affair was the actual
traveling that must be done by Arethusa in order to reach her father.

Miss Eliza's first idea was to find out if anyone in the County would
be making a trip to the City this fall and to place her niece under
that person's protection; provided that person was of the
irreproachable character she deemed requisite before being entrusted
with such a charge.

Miss Letitia then ventured to mention, most timidly, the State Fair,
which was held in Lewisburg every September. Some one of the county's
agricultural population would most surely be going there then.

Perhaps Timothy, answ