"You speak as though that was an improper thing to do."
There was a slight movement of her shoulders.
"I suppose that some men kill pheasants, and that other men rule empires. I might like to do both things, but I confess that if I had to choose I should prefer the empires."
I looked at her. Quietly, and without any ostentation, she gave me back glance for glance. Something from her eyes seemed to get into my veins.
"Suppose it was not yours to choose?"
"It would be were I a man."
"It certainly has never yet been mine."
"Then you certainly are not a man."
Her high-faluting amused me. That the little, brown-haired, blue-eyed thing should talk in such an inflated strain! And yet I felt that if she had been a man she would have gone for the gloves--nay, that though she was a woman she might go for them still.
She went on--