“You evidently don’t understand me,” she said sharply. “Your presence is obnoxious. I wish to be left alone.”
“Very probably,” said O’Leary, without, however, having shown any signs of departing.
“Do you hear me?” she said angrily.
He shrugged his shoulders.
“Useless to talk to me like that, my lady,” he said, exaggerating his role for purposes of his own. “I’m no gentleman, you see—you can’t put those tricks over on me. I’m just King O’Leary, and I’m going to see that you get out of here. Now that you understand things better, will you go quietly, or do you want me to pick you up and carry you?”
She drew back with a cry.
“Don’t touch me!”
“Well, which is it?”
She made up her mind quickly; evidently she could size up a situation and reconcile herself to it when faced with a crisis, for she turned and went down the other flights without a word.
On the second floor, his ear caught the sounds of hurried, slipping steps. He turned hastily, almost certain that he had seen the passage of some tall, shifting body, but he did not dare to investigate them, with the duty in hand.