Katie he had often kissed, but never Linda, cousins though they were.

Linda merely laughed, but Norman blushed; for he remembered that had it so chanced that Gertrude had been there, he would not have dared to kiss her.
'Oh, Harry,' said Katie, 'we are so sorry--that is, not sorry about Alaric, but sorry about you.

Why were there not two prizes ?' 'It's all right as it is, Katie,' said he; 'we need none of us be sorry at all.

Alaric is a clever fellow; everybody gave him credit for it before, and now he has proved that everybody is right.' 'He is older than you, you know, and therefore he ought to be cleverer,' said Katie, trying to make things pleasant.
And then they went out into the garden.

But where was Gertrude all this time?
She had been in the drawing-room a moment before his arrival.