She folded her hands at her waist, and stood up very straight, looking
firmly at Mrs. Munger, who made a show of taking a new grip of her senses
as she sank unbidden into a chair.
"Why, what do you mean, Miss Kilburn?"
"It seems to me that I needn't say."
"Why, but you must! You _must_, you know. I can't be _left_ so! I
must know where I _stand_! I must be sure of my _ground_! I can't
go on without understanding just how much you mean by my being mistaken."
She looked Annie in the face with eyes superficially expressive of
indignant surprise, and Annie perceived that she wished to restore herself
in her own esteem by browbeating some one else into the affirmation of her
innocence.
"Well, if you must know, Mrs. Munger, I mean that you ought to have
remembered Mr. Putney's infirmity, and that it was cruel to put temptation
in his way. Everybody knows that he can't resist it, and that he is making
such a hard fight to keep out of it. And then, if you press me for an
opinion, I must say that you were not justifiable in asking Mr. Peck to
take part in a social entertainment when we had explicitly dropped that
part of the affair."
Mrs. Munger had not pressed Annie for an opinion on this point at all; but
in their interest in it they both ignored the fact. Mrs. Munger tacitly
admitted her position in retorting, "He needn't have stayed."
"You made him stay--you remember how--and he couldn't have got away without
being rude."
"And you think he wasn't rude to scold me before my guests?"
"He told you the truth. He didn't wish to say anything, but you forced him
to speak, just as you have forced me."
"Forced _you_? Miss Kilburn!"
"Yes. I don't at all agree with Mr. Peck in many things, but he is a good
man, and last night he spoke the truth. I shouldn't be speaking it if I
didn't tell you I thought so."
"Very well, then," said Mrs. Munger, rising.
"After this you can't expect me to have anything to do with the Social
Union; you couldn't _wish_ me to, if that's your opinion of my
character."
"I haven't expressed any opinion of your character, Mrs. Munger, if you'll
remember, please; and as for the Social Union, I shall have nothing further
to do with it myself."
Annie drew herself up a little higher, and silently waited for her visitor
to go.