"Now, Kitty, stop."

"Another man!" sighed Mrs. Willoughby.

"Now, Kitty, if you are so unkind, I'll cry. You're _always_ teasing
me. You _never_ do any thing to comfort me. You _know_ I want comfort,
and I'm not strong, and people all come and save my life and worry me;
and I really sometimes think I'd rather not live at all if my life
_has_ to be saved so often. I'm sure _I_ don't know why they go and do
it. I'm sure _I_ never heard of any person who is always going and
getting her life saved, and bothered, and proposed to, and written to,
and chased, and frightened to death. And I've a _great_ mind to go and
get married, just to stop it all. And I'd _just_ as soon marry this
last man as not, and make him drive all the others away from me. He's
big enough."

Minnie ended all this with a little sob; and her sister, as usual, did
her best to soothe and quiet her.

"Well, but, darling, how did it all happen?"

"Oh, don't, don't."

"But you might tell _me_"

"Oh, I can't bear to think of it. It's too horrible."

"Poor darling--the crater?"

"No, the great, big man. I didn't see any crater."