"Oh, don't you like Mr. Devereux?"
"Yes, he's all right." Phil seldom spoke a disparaging word of any of his comrades. "But I haven't the smallest wish to be like him," he added.
Audrey laughed at him again, freely, musically. She found this young officer rather more entertaining than the rest.
They reached the other side of the shrine. Here, in a débris of stones and weeds, there appeared the circular mouth of an old well, forgotten like the shrine and long disused.
Audrey examined the edge with a fastidious air, and finally sat down on it. The place was flooded with moonlight.
"I wish I were a man," she said suddenly.
"Good Heavens! Why?"
He asked the question in amazement.
"I should like to be your equal," she told him gaily. "I should like to do and say to you just exactly what I liked."
Phil considered this seriously.