st complete amazement passed over
Gervase Vanburgh's face as he echoed the word, for this was, indeed, the
last question which he had expected to hear from Nan Rendell's lips.

"You want me to define a flirt? That is a little more difficult, but I
will try what I can do. `One who practises the art of flirting,' the
dictionary would tell us, with its usual admirable candour, but that
doesn't seem to give much enlightenment. A flirt, I should say, is the
antithesis of a friend, for he affects more than he feels; he flatters
and makes pretty speeches, while in effect he may be critical and
disparaging. He thinks of himself and his own amusement, and is so much
concerned for the gratification of his own vanity that he often inflicts
serious wounds on the hearts of others."

"So bad as that? Horrid things, how I despise them! I can't imagine
how people can make themselves so contemptible. Well, whatever may be
my faults, I can honestly say I am not a flirt; but some people are so
suspicious that they are always imagining mischief. Some one said to
me--I mean, I've heard it said--that when a man and a girl like you and
me agree to be friends, it is just another way of beginning a
flirtation. It made me very angry when I heard that; but now that I
have asked you, I am quite satisfied, for it seems impossible to mix the
two things together. You can't flatter a person when you have agreed to
tell him his faults; you can't feign a sentiment which is real. I knew
I was right, though I could not argue it out; but for the future I
sha'n't mind a bit when you say nasty things to me, for I shall feel
they are a proof of friendship; and I shall find fault with you on every
possible occasion, just to show that I am not flirting, and have only
your own good at heart."

Nan stopped short, quite out of breath with eagerness, and Gervase
looked at her with a scrutinising smile.

"So!" he was saying to himself, "Somebody said, did she? I wish
Somebody would mind her own business, and not put foolish ideas into
your innocent little head. Somebody has her own hands pretty full, I
imagine, and might be better employed looking after her own affairs;"
but aloud he said simply--

"We will make a compact that we will never flirt with each other, but be
the truest and most candid of friends; and, to begin as we mean to go
on, lay your instructions upon me now for my conduct during my absence.
You know my life--an idle one, unfortun