Perhaps some commotion among the party broke up the little private conversation in the corner.

And he was not alone with Mary again till there came a moment for him to put her cloak over her shoulders in the back parlour, while Mrs.
Flood Jones was finishing some important narrative to his mother.

It was Barbara, I think, who stood in some doorway, and prevented people from passing, and so gave him the opportunity which he abused.
"Mary," said he, taking her in his arms, without a single word of love-making beyond what the reader has heard,--"one kiss before we part." "No, Phineas, no!" But the kiss had been taken and given before she had even answered him.

"Oh, Phineas, you shouldn't!" "I should.

Why shouldn't I?
And, Mary, I will have one morsel of your hair." "You shall not; indeed you shall not!" But the scissors were at hand, and the ringlet was cut and in his pocket before she was ready with her resistance.