"I'm sorry."
"Sorry that I've had enough?" I sneered.
"Sorry you cannot leave the valley to-night," she said quietly.
"Then it is not possible?"
"I'm afraid not.... If it were, I also would leave this valley to-night."
"With a bagful of kings," I added.
"Yes," she said simply.
"Oh, no, you wouldn't," said I with unworthy satisfaction in my knowledge of Smith's mission. "And let me tell you a thing or two, Thusis. You seem to resemble, more or less, a very naughty little girl, spoiled but precocious, who has run away from school and is raising the devil out of bounds, throwing stones and ringing door-bells and defying policemen with derisive tongue. Pretty soon you'll be caught and led home and soundly spanked. And," I added fervently, "I'd like to be in the vicinity of that wood-shed when discipline begins."
My laughter was fairly genuine. I lighted a cigarette and, gazing at this girl who had so outrageously maligned me, felt so much better that a macabre sort of gaiety verging upon frivolity invaded me.
"All women," said I, "are women, first, last, and all the time."