You haven't been alone, you needn't tell me that." "No, I haven't been alone." "But, he wasn't with you?
There wasn't any man ?" "No, there was not any man, grandmother." "Then you had better get into your own room as fast as you can and move still or you will wake up Harriet and Susan." Annie went.
"I am thankful I am not curious," said the old woman clambering back into bed.

She lit her lamp and took up her novel again.
The next morning old Ann Maria Eustace announced her granddaughter's engagement at the breakfast table.

She waited until the meal was in full swing, then she raised her voice.
"Well, girls," she said, looking first at Harriet, then at Susan, "I have some good news for you.

Our little Annie here is too modest, so I have to tell you for her." Harriet Eustace laughed unsuspiciously.

"Don't tell us that Annie has been writing a great anonymous novel like Margaret Edes," she said, and Susan laughed also.