I was
disturbed at seeing her brow contract at sight of me, but my worst fears
were realized when she said:--

"I do not wonder that you have preferred to keep away from me."

"On the contrary, Aunt Agnes, I have called twice before, this week."

"When you knew I was out, I dare say."

There was no answering such logic as this.

"I seem never to be able to satisfy you," I said bravely. "I had come to
tell you that I am studying hard under the direction of Mr. Fleisch, a
favorite pupil of Mr. Spence, and am doing all I can to improve myself."

"Fiddlesticks! Tell _me_!"

"But, Aunt Agnes, it is so."

"I have heard all about you. You can't tell me anything about the
matter I don't know already. We shall hear next of your carrying your
habit of flirting into the sanctuary itself. You might almost as well
coquet with a minister of the holy Gospel as with him you have selected
to try your fascinations on. I might have guessed what would be the
result of introducing you to sober-minded people. It was none of my
work, thank Heaven! Lucretia Kingsley has herself to blame, for I heard
her give you the invitation from her own lips. But I blush for you as my
niece. No amount of proficiency or cleverness can be a palliation of
your behavior."

"I have been maligned, Aunt Agnes," I cried with flashing eyes. "Some
one has told you a pack of falsehoods. It is not true that I have been
flirting with anybody. I have given up everything of the kind, as I said
I should. Who has been accusing me? I insist on knowing who told you."

"No matter who told me. My authority is of the best."

"I suppose it was your friend Miss Kingsley. I half suspected that she
would misrepresent me in private."

"You admit, then, that you are guilty?"

"I admit nothing. If, as your words seem to imply, Miss Kingsley says I
acted unbecomingly at her house, she does not speak the truth. She is
jealous. The long and short of it is, Mr. Spence was polite to me, and
that made her angry. I believe she wishes to marry him herself," I said
in the fulness of my anger.

"Virginia! I am astonished at you. It will not mend matters to insult
your benefactors. What motive had Miss Kingsley, pray, in asking you to
her house but kindness?"

"Pshaw!" I cried, now thoroughly roused. "She asked me because she
thought I was fashionable, and because it would read well in the
newspaper that I had been at one of her tea-parties. She imagined I was
so silly and brai