That was perfectly true but I denied it.
"You know," she said, "when a man finds a girl attractive the girl always knows it, even when she's a servant.... And certain circumstances made it much more amusing than you realize.... I mean to be respectful. I am your servant.... But you know very well that it is funny."
"What is funny?"
"The circumstances. You found me attractive. It mortified you. And the way you took it was intensely amusing to me."
"Why?"
"Because you are you; and I am I. Because the fact that you found your cook attractive horrified you. That was intensely funny to me. And when, waiving the degradation, you actually attempted to kiss your own cook——"
Laughter burst from her lips in a silvery shower of rippling notes which enchanted and infuriated me at the same time.
I waited, very red, to control my voice; then I got up and set a chair for her. And she dropped onto it without protest.
"What are you doing in my household?" I asked drily.
At that her laughter ceased and she gave me a straight sweet look.