"Well, it was silly enough," she said, dismissing the subject. "I don't know what made me do it."
He had unlaid the strands of the rope while they talked, and now, placing it in her hand, he showed her how to make a bight with one strand and pass a second around the first, and a third around the second, and up through the bight of the first, forming the wall.
"Now you try," he said, and, undoing the knot, passed the rope to her.
In a moment she held it up triumphantly.
"What do you do next?" she asked.
"Now we will put on the double crown."
"It is hard," she said after a moment more. "It looked simple enough while you were doing it." She held the rope in her hand and looked at him in smiling despair. "I shall never learn."
"Yes, you will," he assured her. "You only need a little patience."
"You will need the patience," she answered.
"Haven't I always had it with you?" he asked in a low voice.