“Don't you realize what I have offered you?” she pleaded. “You are throwing my sacrifice in my face. As the case stands now, I can hurry off to the home of some girl friend and make up a little story of a foolish lark, and my father will never know what has been happening. He expects me to do a lot of silly things.”
“That's your business—and his,” he returned, dryly.
“Captain Mayo, I have been trying to show you that I am fit to be considered something besides a silly girl. I wanted you to know that I have a sense of obligation. The plan may seem like a girl's romantic notion. But it isn't. It's bold, and your case heeds boldness. I was trying to show you that I'm not a coward. I was going to confess to my father what I have done and start on the level with him. You throw it all in my face—you insult my plan by calling it crazy.”
“It is,” he insisted, doggedly. “And I'm in bad enough as it is!”
“Oh, you're afraid, then?”
He frowned. Her sneer seemed gratuitous injury.
He did not understand that variety of feminine guile which seeks to goad to action one who refuses to be led.
“I admire boldness in a man when his case is desperate and he is trying to save himself. I have lived among men who are bold in going after what they want.”
“I have had a little experience with that kind of land pirates, and I don't like the system.”
“I shall not make any unnecessary sacrifices,” she de-clared, tartly, but there were tears in her eyes. “I did what I could to help you when you were trying to save me. Why are you so ungenerous as to refuse to help me now?”