It seemed to me that she was playing me with all this nonsense--as if she must have known that I had a tenderness for her and were fooling me to the top of her bent.

I tried to get my hook in.
"Now look here," I said, "we must get things settled.

You ..." She carried the speech off from under my nose.
"Oh, you won't denounce me," she said, "not any more than you did before; there are so many reasons.

There would be a scene, and you're afraid of scenes--and our aunt would back _me_ up.

She'd have to.