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 "You are mistaken," urged Caroline, in some anxiety: "Robert is no puppy or male flirt; I can vouch for that."

"You vouch for it! Do you think I'll take your word on the subject? There is no one's testimony I would not credit sooner than yours. To advance Moore's fortune, you would cut off your right hand."

"But not tell lies; and if I speak the truth, I must assure you that he was just civil to me last night—that was all."

"I never asked what he was—I can guess: I saw him from the window take your hand in his long fingers, just as he went out at my gate."

"That is nothing. I am not a stranger, you know: I am an old acquaintance, and his cousin."

"I feel indignant; and that is the long and short of the matter," responded Miss Keeldar. "All my comfort," she added, presently, "is broken up by his manœuvres. He keeps intruding between you and me: without him we should be good friends; but that six feet of puppyhood makes a perpetually recurring eclipse of our friendship. Again and again he crosses and obscures the disk I want always to see clear: ever and anon he renders me to you a mere bore and nuisance."

"No, Shirley; no."

"He does. You did not want my society this afternoon, and I feel it hard: you are naturally somewhat reserved, but I am a social personage, who cannot live alone. If we were but left unmolested, I