Indeed, there had been little occasional squabbles, not sharp, but suggestive, when he was trifling about with Mrs.Kittridge, Mrs.Ledwell, and others.

There were, as may be imagined, from time to time absences, brief and unimportant, which he explained easily, passional indifferences which were not explained so easily, and the like; but since his affections were not really involved in any of those instances, he had managed to smooth the matter over quite nicely.
"Why do you say that ?" he would demand, when she suggested, apropos of a trip or a day when she had not been with him, that there might have been another.

"You know there hasn't.

If I am going in for that sort of thing you'll learn it fast enough.

Even if I did, it wouldn't mean that I was unfaithful to you spiritually." "Oh, wouldn't it ?" exclaimed Aileen, resentfully, and with some disturbance of spirit.