"Do you mean to say you sat perfectly still in front of him, and let him sit on, thinking himself alone, and then suddenly discover you?..."
"Yes. Why not?"
"Well, it wasn't very fair on him."
"Such nonsense, Meryl! That's just what he seemed to think. Why shouldn't I have a little romance if I want to? Such a dull, prosaic, commonplace old world as it is, generally speaking! I was having a lovely one. He was a great hunter who had lost his way, and dragged himself into the temple to die...."
"I thought you said he strode in?..."
"Don't be silly; he wasn't in the romance then. And I was a lovely, mysterious veiled lady who lived in the wilderness; but my veil happened to be thrown back, and when the dying hunter raised his eyes...." she stopped short.
"Well?..."
"That's where the romance stopped, where he brutally spoilt it, because when he raised his eyes and saw me there he just scowled horribly."
Stanley and Meryl laughed whole-heartedly, but Meryl told her it served her right because she was unfairly taking him at a disadvantage.
"But I did nothing of the kind. No one was at a disadvantage except myself."