`` How old must a person be before she is grown up ? '' I asked gravely . `` Humph ! That depends . Some are grown up when they 're born , and others ai n't grown up when they 're eighty . That same Mrs. Roderick I was speaking of never grew up . She was as foolish when she was a hundred as when she was ten . '' `` Perhaps that 's why she lived so long , '' I suggested . All thought of seeking sympathy in Aunt Philippa had vanished . I resolved I would not even mention Mark 's name . `` Mebbe 't was , '' admitted Aunt Philippa with a grim smile . '' I 'd rather live fifty sensible years than a hundred foolish ones . '' Much to my relief , she made no further reference to my affairs . As we rounded a curve in the road where two great over-arching elms met , a buggy wheeled by us , occupied by a young man in clerical costume . He had a pleasant boyish face , and he touched his hat courteously . Aunt Philippa nodded very frostily and gave her horse a quite undeserved cut . `` There 's a man you do n't want to have much to do with , '' she said portentously . `` He 's a Methodist minister . '' `` Why , Auntie , the Methodists are a very nice denomination , '' I protested . `` My stepmother is a Methodist , you know . ''
`` No , I did n't know , but I 'd believe anything XXXXX a stepmother .
As Humph Methodist before by in of than to with