"Which, you mean, is a good reason why I should speak no more about
him. I obey you, Miss Grey."
"But his daughter? Did you say you knew his daughter?" pursued Miss
Gascoigne.
"Oh yes, casually. A charming girl she was! very pretty, though
immature. Those large, fair women sometimes do not look their best
until near thirty. And she had a glorious voice. She and I used to sing
duets-together continually."
He might not have thought what he was doing--it is but charity to
suppose so; that he spoke only after his usual careless and somewhat
presumptuous style of speaking about all women, but he must have
been struck by the horrified expression of Miss Gascoigne's face.
"Sing duets together! a young man in your position, and a young
woman in hers! Without a mother, too!"
"Oh, her father was generally present, if you think of propriety. But I
do assure you, Miss Gascoigne, there was not the slightest want of
propriety. She was a very pretty girl, and I was a young fellow, rather
soft, perhaps, and so we had a--well, you might call it a trifling
flirtation. But nothing of any consequence--nothing. I do assure you."
"Of course it was of no consequence," said Aunt Maria, again breaking
in with a desperate courage. And still more desperate were the nods
and winks with which she at last aroused even Aunt Henrietta to a
sense of the position into which the conversation was bringing them
both, so that she, too, had the good feeling to add,
"Certainly it is not of the slightest consequence.
Pages:
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243