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.