Aunt Stanbury,
I had better go away. And if you please I will,--when you are well
enough to spare me."

"Pray don't think of me at all," said her aunt.

"And as for love-letters,--Mr. Burgess has written to me once. I
don't think that there can be anything immodest in opening a letter
when it comes by the post. And as soon as I had it I determined to
shew it to you. As for what happened before, when Mr. Burgess spoke
to me, which was long, long after all that about Mr. Gibson was over,
I told him that it couldn't be so; and I thought there would be no
more about it. You were so ill that I could not tell you. Now you
know it all."

"I have not seen your letter to him."

"I shall never shew it to anybody. But you have said things, Aunt
Stanbury, that are very cruel."

"Of course! Everything I say is wrong."

"You have told me that I was telling untruths, and you have called
me--immodest. That is a terrible word."

"You shouldn't deserve it then."

"I never have deserved it, and I won't bear it. No; I won't. If Hugh
heard me called that word, I believe he'd tear the house down."

"Hugh, indeed! He's to be brought in between us;--is he?"

"He's my brother, and of course I'm obliged to think of him. And if
you please, I'll go home as soon as you are well enough to spare me."

Quickly after this there were very many letters coming and going
between the house in the Close and the ladies at Nuncombe Putney, and
Hugh Stanbury and Brooke Burgess. The correspondent of Brooke Burgess
was of course Miss Stanbury herself. The letters to Hugh and to
Nuncombe Putney were written by Dorothy. Of the former we need be
told nothing at the present moment; but the upshot of all poor
Dolly's letters was, that on the tenth of March she was to return
home to Nuncombe Putney, share once more her sister's bed and
mother's poverty, and abandon the comforts of the Close. Before
this became a definite arrangement Miss Stanbury had given way in a
certain small degree. She had acknowledged that Dorothy had intended
no harm. But this was not enough for Dorothy, who was conscious of
no harm either done or intended. She did not specify her terms, or
require specifically that her aunt should make apology for that word
immodest, or at least withdraw it; but she resolved that she would go
unless it was most absolutely declared to have been applied to her
without the slightest reason. She felt, moreover, that her aunt's
house ought to be open