't care anything
about his going home with me."

"Didn't he come in?"

"No, he didn't."

"Didn't you--ask him?"

"No, I didn't."

"Maria."

"Well, what?"

"Maria, aren't you going to marry him if he asks you?"

"No," said Maria, "I am never going to marry him, if that is what you
want to know. I am never going to marry George Ramsey."

Lily sobbed.

"I should think you would be ashamed of yourself. I should think any
girl would, acting so," said Maria. Her voice was a mere whisper, but
it was cruel. She felt that she hated Lily. Then she realized how icy
cold the girl was and how she trembled from head to feet in a nervous
chill. "You'll catch your death," she said.

"Oh, I don't care if I do!" Lily said, in her hysterical voice, which
had now a certain tone of comfort.

Maria considered again how much she despised and hated her, and again
Lily shook with a long tremor. Maria got up and tiptoed over to her
closet, where she kept a little bottle of wine which the doctor had
ordered when she first came to Amity. It was not half emptied. A
wineglass stood on the mantel-shelf, and Maria filled it with the
wine by the light of the moon. Then she returned to Lily.

"Here," she said, still in the same cruel voice. "Sit up and drink
this."

"What is it?" moaned Lily.

"Never mind what it is. Sit up and drink it."

Lily sat up and obediently drank the wine, every drop.

"Now lie down and keep still, and go to sleep, and behave yourself,"
said Maria.

Lily tried to say something, but Maria would not listen to her.

"Don't you speak another word," said she. "Keep still, or Aunt Maria
will be up. Lie still and go to sleep."

It was not long before, warmed by the wine and comforted by Maria's
assertion that she was never going to marry George Ramsey, that Lily
fell asleep. Maria lay awake hearing her long, even breaths, and she
felt how she hated her, how she hated herself, how she hated life.
There was no sleep for her. Just before dawn she woke Lily, bundled
her up in some extra clothing, and went with her across the yard,
home.

"Now go up to your own room just as still as you can," said she, and
her voice sounded terrible even in her own ears. She waited until she
heard the key softly turn in the door of the Merrill house. Then she
sped home and up to her own room. Then she lay down in bed again and
waited for broad daylight.

Chapter XXI

When Maria dressed herself the next morning, she h