"Wrong!—here goes!"
And before Miss Fanny could make her retreat, Ralph Ashley, Esq., caught that young lady in his arms, and impressed a salute upon her lips, so remarkably enthusiastic, that it resembled the discharge of a pistol. Perhaps we are wrong in saying that it was imprinted on his cousin's lips, inasmuch as Miss Fanny, though incapacitated from releasing herself, could still turn her head, and she always maintained that nothing but her cheek suffered. On this point we cannot be sure, and therefore leave the question undecided.
Of one fact, however, there can be no doubt—namely, that Mr. Ralph Ashley received, almost immediately, a vigorous salute of another description upon the cheek, from Miss Fanny's open hand—a salute which caused his face to assume the most girlish bloom, and his eyes to suddenly fill with tears.
"By Jove! you've got an arm!" said the cavalier, admiringly. "Come, my charming child—why did you treat me so cruelly?"
"Why did you kiss me? Impudence!"
"That's just what young ladies always say," replied her cavalier, philosophically; "whatever they like, they are sure to call impudent."
"Like?"
"Yes, like! Do you pretend to say that you are not complimented by a salute from such an elegant gentleman as myself?"
"Oh, of course!" said Miss Fanny, satirically.
"Then the element of natural affection—of consanguinity—has its due weight no doubt, my dearest. I am your cousin."