Well, this was all going swimmingly, wasn't it? From this vantage point, it was hard to believe that a few minutes ago he'd been nervous about how to broach the subject. Things seemed to be flowing so smoothly, and Miss Cosgrove was picking up on all the right cues. He couldn't help but smile — he would have smiled anyway, because it was what one did when flirting, but it was nice that in this instance it was genuine.

"You think that personally?" he replied in a lightly teasing tone. "Shall we put it to the test, then?"

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