"You are very impertinent!" And her mistress punished her maid's impertinence by flinging her the amber bracelet she wore.
"Now, disobedient one, you shall tell me why you think such a naughty thing. Yet you cannot know. No one can see into his large mind. He keeps it closed. He is as wise as a priest. Not even I can enter it. And you are very ignorant, Isonna."
"Nevertheless, his mind is as glass to me!" insisted the maid.
"I will tell my father and he shall punish you with whips. Now, you dear little beast, I shall force you to tell me the reason you think in your evil mind the great color-bearer to the prince of heaven stays here!"
"You," said the maid, coolly refilling first the pipe of her mistress, then her own.
"I shall not tell my father," said Miss Star-Dream, "for I pity you. It is such a great lie that he would make Ozumi whip you to death. Yet it is a lie which makes me happy. Was I ever so happy as I am now—since he came?"
"No," said the maid.
"But he will go sometime—we agree upon that?" questioned the mistress, once more hoping anything but that they did agree upon that. The maid was not blind to her hope.
"Not yet," she answered with a decision which gave joy to the girl's soul.
"He will. He must die."