"You should have a revenge on my face; not in kind, but in kindness. I can't strike a man who won't hit back." She laughed at me with all her old enticing gaiety.
I had almost sealed the bargain; she was so roguish and so pretty. Had we met first then, it is very likely she would have made the offer, and very certain that I should have taken it. But there had been other days; I sighed.
"I loved you too well once to kiss you now, mistress," said I.
"You're mighty strange at times, Simon," said she, sighing also, and lifting her brows. "Now, I'd as lief kiss a man I had loved as any other."
"Or slap his face?"
"If I'd never cared to kiss, I'd never care for the other either. You rise?"
"Why, yes. I have my commission, haven't I?"
"I give you this one also, and yet you keep it?"
"Is that slight not yet forgiven?"
"All is forgiven and all is forgotten—nearly, Simon."