But just as soon as I looked back at him he turned his eyes away and cleared his throat, and began to eat or to talk to Aunt Jane.
After dinner--I mean supper--he went out to the observatory, just as he always used to.

Aunt Jane said her head ached and she was going to bed.

I said I guessed I would step over to Carrie Heywood's; but Aunt Jane said, certainly not; that I was much too young to be running around nights in the dark.

Nights! And it was only seven o'clock, and not dark at all! But of course I couldn't go.
Aunt Jane went upstairs, and I was left alone.

I didn't feel a bit like reading; besides, there wasn't a book or a magazine anywhere _asking_ you to read.