But Miss Jennings's attention had wandered.
"Kissing is a queer thing," she said musingly.
"It doesn't seem so after a while," Tim hastened to inform her.
"If you had got a young lady of your own," continued Miss Jennings, evidently debating a point which had occupied her attention before, "and you were to kiss another one, in a manner of speaking there would be no harm done."
"None whatever," agreed Tim heartily.
"What the eye doesn't see the heart doesn't grieve over," continued Miss Jennings sententiously.
"Selah!" corroborated the expectant Timothy.
"But if the eye was to see—my word!"
Miss Jennings inserted a fresh sheet of paper into the typewriter, and continued:—
"Seems to me, kissing another young lady's young gentleman is just like picking up her cup of tea and taking a drink out of it. If she don't get to know about it, no one's a penny the wiser or a penny the worse. But if she does—well, she feels she simply must have a clean cup! So don't you take any risks, Mr. Rendle. You've such a silly way of talking that I don't know whether you have a young lady or not. If you haven't one now, you will have some day. If you have—one that's at all fond of you—and go kissing me, you will be sorry directly afterwards."