We'll talk of it again--I'm in a hurry now," and, edging himself through the door, he slipped away.
"What do you think is father's last idea ?" said Christie, with, I fear, a slight lack of reverence in her tone, as her sister reentered the room.

"He thinks George Kearney is paying you too much attention." "No!" said Jessie, replying to her sister's half-interrogative, half-amused glance with a frank, unconscious smile.
"Yes, and he says that Fairfax--I think it's Fairfax--is equally fascinated with ME." Jessie's brow slightly contracted as she looked curiously at her sister.
"Of all things," she said, "I wonder if any one has put that idea into his dear old head.

He couldn't have thought it himself." "I don't know," said Christie musingly; "but perhaps it's just as well if we kept a little more to ourselves for a while." "Did father say so ?" said Jessie quickly.
"No, but that is evidently what he meant." "Ye-es," said Jessie slowly, "unless--" "Unless what ?" said Christie sharply.

"Jessie, you don't for a moment mean to say that you could possibly conceive of anything else ?" "I mean to say," said Jessie, stealing her arm around her sister's waist demurely, "that you are perfectly right.

We'll keep away from these fascinating Devil's Forders, and particularly the youngest Kearney.
I believe there has been some ill-natured gossip.