"You don't want to take what he says seriously." "Of course not," said Susan, quite honestly, though she, no more than the next human being, could avoid taking seriously whatever was pleasantly flattering.
"He'd never think of marrying you." Ruth trembled before and after delivering this venomous shaft.
"Marrying!" cried Susan, again quite honestly.

"Why, I'm only seventeen." Ruth drew a breath of relief.

The shaft had glanced off the armor of innocence without making the faintest dent.

She rushed into the house.

She did not dare trust herself with her cousin.
What might the demon within her tempt her to say next?
"Come up, Ruth!" called her mother.