"I did not."
"Yet you countenanced the charge."
"Because I thought a flogging would do the boy no harm."
"You don't seem to have any great affection for your nephew."
"I do not."
"And the reason?"
"Is simply this. The boy's mother jilted me, or rather refused me outright when I offered my hand in marriage."
"Ha, that's where the shoe pinches."
"You are right."