"If a man calls a girl an angel when he thinks he is in heaven, he has no business to call her only—" she stopped and sniffed disdainfully at the word—"pleasant when he finds he is not."
"What would you, then, have him to call you on earth?" questioned the puzzled maid.
"Angel still."
"Permit him a little time, mistress."
"Time! Time! What do you call time, you ignorant one? It was fifteen minutes! Yes! We had been talking fifteen minutes when he said I was a pleasant person! After saying I was an angel!"
"Oh!" said Isonna—which Hoshiko took for reproof.
"I have known him two weeks!"
"Yes," agreed the maid.
"And if you speak—if you suggest again, that which twice nearly escaped your lips, I will kill you. One night you will lie down, and, into your horrid, tattling mouth, I will pour, as you sleep, a something which will prevent you from ever rising. I have it always ready for you."
"But, your father?" whined Isonna.