“Really, I can’t.”
“You mean you won’t!”
“I’d rather not, at any rate.”
Again her intent look surprised him. “Not if I bent ‘on bended knee’ to you?”
“Not if you begged me with bitter tears,” he laughed.
“I thought you wouldn’t, before I asked you,” she said broodingly. “I knew it would be of no use.”
“You did? Why do you want so much to go?”
“If I tell you that, will you tell me why you won’t take me?”
“I can’t promise. But what reason can there be except that I don’t care to risk your life in a boat I know nothing about?”
“What solicitude!” she said with sarcasm. “‘Men were deceivers ever.’”