"Are you still vexed at me?"
"No."
"Because—I was rude to you. I did provoke you. I did lay myself open to light treatment from you. But—I do respect you, Don Michael."
"You are always laughing at me."
"I know. It's my way—if I like a person.... I plague them a little.... If I like them."
"But you not only plague me, you ridicule me!"
"You don't understand. You couldn't understand. I myself don't understand why I laugh at you and torment you.... Because I never before did that to a man.... To my sister—to my girl friends, yes. But never before to any man."
She stood near me, smiling, watching my expression.
"I like you, Don Michael," she said.
"And I you, Thusis."