"If you will promise to forgive the Imp—"
"Certainly not!" she retorted.
"So be it!" I sighed, and sat down again. As I did so she launched her book at me.
"Beast!" she exclaimed.
"Which means that you are ready to descend?" I inquired, rising and depositing the maltreated volume side by side with my pipe on a rustic table near-by; "very good. Place your right foot in—"
"Oh, all right," she said quite pettishly, and next moment I had her in my arms.
"Dick! put me down-at once!"
"One moment, Lisbeth; that boy is a growing boy—"
"And shall go to bed without any tea!" she broke in.
"Very well, then," I said, and reading the purpose in my eyes, she attempted, quite vainly, to turn her head aside.