'
'I am not so sure of that, Henry. Let me be quite frank with you. I
do not wish to entrap you into making an engagement you cannot keep.
You have corroborated to-night what I half suspected when I saw you
talking to the girl in the churchyard; there is a very vigorous
flirtation going on between you and this wretched man's daughter.'
'Flirtation? 'I said, and the incongruity of the word as applied to
such a passion as mine did not vex or wound me; it made me smile.
'Well, for her sake, I hope it is nothing more,' said my mother. 'In
view of the impassable gulf between her and you, I do for her sake
sincerely hope that it is nothing more than a flirtation.'
'Pardon me, mother,' I said, 'it was the word "flirtation" that made
me smile.'
'We will not haggle about words, Henry; give it what name may please
you, it is all the same to me. But flirtations of this kind will
sometimes grow serious, as the case of Percy Aylwin and the Gypsy
girl shows. Now, Henry, I do not accuse you of entertaining the mad
idea of really marrying this girl, though such things, as you know,
have been in our family.
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