'I cannot listen to you, dear sir!'
'But your heart beats!'
'I am not mistress of it.'
'Call me master of it. I make ready for to-morrow.'
' No! no! no! A thousand times no! You have been reading too much fiction and verse. Properly I should spurn you.'
'Will you fail me, play feu follet, ward me off again?'
'I must be won by rules, brave knight!'
'Will you be won?'
'And are you he—the Alvan who would not be centaur?'
'I am he who chased a marsh-fire, and encountered a retiarius, and the meshes are on my head and arms. I fancied I dealt with a woman; a woman needing protection! She has me fast—I am netted, centaur or man. That is between us two. But think of us facing the world, and trust me; take my hand, take the leap; I am the best fighter in that fight. Trust it to me, and all your difficulties are at an end. To fly solves the problem.'