'And, Gill,' added Val, 'I'm in second class too, and I took three
places for knowing where Teheran was, and got above Kitty Varley and
a girl there two years older than I am, and her name is Maura.'

'Maura, how very odd! I never heard of any one called Maura but one
of the Whites,' said Gillian. 'What was her surname?'

This Valetta could not tell, and at the moment Mrs. Mount came up
with intent to brush Miss Valetta's hair, and to expedite the going
to bed.

Gillian, not very happy about the revelations she had heard, went
downstairs, and found her younger aunt alone, Miss Mohun having been
summoned to a conference with one of her clients in the parish room.
In her absence Gillian always felt more free and communicative, and
she had soon told whatever she did not feel as a sort of confidence,
including Valetta's derivation of spooning, and when Miss Mohun
returned it was repeated to her.

'Yes,' was her comment, 'children's play is a convenient cover to the
present form of flirtation. No doubt Bee Varley and Mr. Marlowe
believe themselves to have been most good-natured.'

'Who is he, and will it come to anything?' asked Aunt Ada, taking her
sister's information for granted.

'Oh no, it is nothing. A civil service man, second cousin's brother-
in-law's stepson. That's quite enough in these days to justify
fraternal romping.'