"
At first I thought the woman was insane, but a glance at her face showed
that there was no reason for fear of that kind.
"That sounds crazy, doesn't it?" she asked, "but it isn't. It is an
honest expression of a very natural wish. Hundreds of ladies have
doubtless looked at you and had that wish; but social conventions
forbade their expressing it. Here we have no conventions, and I speak my
mind."
"Madam," said I, "or miss, there are few things I hold in such
abhorrence as flirtation." As I said this I looked at her severely, and
she looked at me quizzically. She had gray eyes, which were capable of a
great variety of expressions, and her face, suffused by the light of a
bantering jocularity, was an attractive one. I was obliged to admit
this, in spite of my distaste for her.
"I like that," she said; "it sounds so well, after your vigorous
flirtation with our abbess. If I had not seen a good deal of that, I
should not have dared to ask you to flirt with me. I thought you liked
it, and now that she is gone might be willing to take up with some one
else."
I was irritated and disquieted. I had been very earnest in my attentions
to Mother Anastasia. Perhaps this lady had seen me attempt to kiss her
hand.
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