“It is not necessary,” replied she, coldly.
“Then we will proceed. First question: Did I correctly state your position?”
“Is a woman who strengthens the hearts of those who are fighting for the right to exist—”
“First question evaded,” interposed Somers. “You invited me to this house; and, by the laws of hospitality, which even the heathen respect, you were impliedly pledged to treat me as a friend, and not as a foe. Second question: Is this so?”
“Did you learn to respect the law of hospitality at Dr. Scoville’s?” sneered she.
“Second question evaded. Dr. Scoville made no pledges to me, nor I to him. No person can blame me for leaving his house when I got ready. Accepting his hospitality and his kindness did not pledge me to go to a Confederate dungeon, where prisoners are systematically murdered. To proceed: By your own confession you invited me to dine in order to make me a prisoner, and take my life by having me hanged as a spy. If you sought to capture me by a trick, would it not—third question—be equally fair for me to escape by a trick?”
“But it is utterly impossible for you to escape,” replied she, glancing through the window at the cavalry on the lawn.
“Third question evaded. You are a lady; and as such, under ordinary circumstances, you are entitled to be treated with the delicacy and consideration due to your sex. But as you have ceased to be a non-combatant,—which you were sorely against your will, and are now actively engaged in the war, conducting the business of capturing a prisoner,—under these circumstances, would it not be entirely fair for me to treat you as a combatant, precisely the same as though you had not unsexed yourself, and were a man?”
“You seem to have already forgotten what is due to a lady,” replied she, her cheek flushed with anger.
“Fourth question evaded.”