Minty flushed at the implication. She was by no means the most charming and noteworthy debutante of the season, but she was proud of her high standards and sense of self-respect. She hadn't allowed her family's scandal to break her down. She didn't appreciate the implication that she was so bland and boringt that having men ponder on her virtue was preferable.

"Not all attention is good attention and sometimes no attention is better," Minty commented solemnly. She would rather remain a spinster because men had found her boring, rather than because they had thought her a whore.