“Ah! Then Kit is the devil.”

“Indeed, Kit is not. Kit is what the devil comes between.”

“Wait, now. I scent a quibble. Kit stands for Christopher, and Kit stands for Katherine—both man and woman. They go arm in arm.”

“Not they. Why, Chris could never look at a woman without blushing.”

“And how about Kate?”

“O, she! She’d go arm in arm with a pair of breeches.”

My lord laughed, half vexedly: “She never could, you know.”

Moll turned on him.

“’Twas you, not me, called Kit the devil. Why don’t you answer for your own?” and, with a manner of playful fretfulness, she began to tease and rally him sotto voce.

Hamilton looked, with a grin, at his cousin, then moved to rejoin her. She stood with set lips and a disdainful frown on her brow.