If she had expected any such earnestness in Leland's reply she was soon disillusioned, for with an amused side-glance at her, as if he found this serious mood the most diverting of all, he said indifferently:
"Oh—mañana."
"To-morrow!" she translated quickly. "But to-morrow never comes."
"Then neither need the effort."
"But without the effort—the striving," she persisted, looking down at the imprint of the tiny dagger on the seal, "there never will be any crown."
He shrugged his shoulders carelessly. "What's the odds, when one doesn't care for a crown?"
"You're just plain lazy!" she cried, provoked that her effort to inspire him had met with such a reception.
He smiled as if she had paid him the greatest of compliments, then sat up with an air of interest.
"This is a topic we've never struck before," he said lightly. "It's like coming across an inviting bypath we've never travelled over. Now suppose you tell me just what is your ideal way for a man to spend his life in order to get the most out of it."