"You've made progress," he laughed lazily. "Yesterday you lisped knowingly of devil-wagons. You weren't even a biped. I'll admit it's something to have discovered the possession of legs."
"I do. And it's something more to have discovered the possession of an appetite."
"And still something more to discover a means to gratify it," he grunted.
If he sought to intimidate her, he failed of his object, for she only laughed at him.
"Oh, I shall not starve. Presently you shall hear me practice with my orchestra. Just now, mon ami, I'm too delightfully sleepy to think of doing anything else."
"Sleep, then."
He laid his coat on the rock, and she sank back upon it, but not to close her eyes. They were turned on a squadron of clouds which sailed in the wide bay between the forest and the hilltop. Markham, leaning on an elbow, puffed at his pipe in silence. She turned her head and looked at him.
"It's curious—" she began, and then passed.
"What is—curious?"
She laughed.