"But not for your own?" she asked with almost the naivete of a
child.
He turned away with a perplexed laugh and replied: "Really, Miss
Alford, you are worse than the Catechism."
She looked at him with a half-amused, half-surprised expression,
the thought occurring to her for the first time that it might not
have been so disagreeable to him after all; and somehow this
thought was quite a relief to her. But she said: "I thought you
would regard me as a hoyden of the worst species."
"Because you kissed your brother? I have never for a moment
forgotten that it was only your misfortune that I was not he."
"I should have remembered that it was not your fault. But here is
your handkerchief, flying like a flag of truce; so let bygones be
bygones. My terms are that you come again another year, and give
me a chance to entertain my brother's friend as a sister ought."
"I am only too glad to submit to them," he eagerly replied, and
then added, so ardently as to deepen the roses already in her
cheeks, "If such are your punishments, Miss Alford, how delicious
must be your favors!"
By common consent the subject was dropped; and with tongues
released from awkward restraint, they chatted freely together,
till in the early twilight they reached her home.
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