'No; Angel picked it up, and Edgar read us the verses, and then threw them into the fire.'
'Burnt them!'
'Yes; he said the worst of such games was that they force one to pay compliments that may be taken to mean more than they do.'
Cherry spoke under a stern sense of virtue doing a service to Alice; and when the quick answer came, 'He didn't say that, I'm sure it was Wilmet,' she asseverated, 'Indeed he did. I don't confuse in that way. It is a very good warning not to dwell on what gentlemen may say in mere play.'
'Who told you I did?' said Alice sharply. 'You've no business to say such things!'
Happily there was an interruption. Cherry felt as if she had had a taste of the claws; but she feared she had been malicious, and she was penitent.