The rush of emotion to the head made me red and dizzy. I had never been talked to that way by a young girl. I didn't know it was done.
And another curious thing about this perfectly gay and unembarrassed eulogy of hers, she said it as frankly and spontaneously as she might have spoken to another girl or to an attractive child: there was absolutely no sex consciousness about her.
"Are you going to let us remain and be your very faithful and diligent servants?" she asked, mischievously amused at the shock she had administered.
"Thusis," I said, "it's going to be rather difficult for me to treat you as a servant. And if your friends are of the same quality——"
"It's perfectly easy," she insisted. "If we presume, correct us. If we are slack, punish us. Be masculine and exacting; be bad tempered about your food—" She laughed delightfully—"Raise the devil with us if we misbehave."
I didn't believe I could do that and said so; and she turned on me that bewildering smile and sat looking at me very intently, with her white hands clasped in her lap.
"You don't think we're a band of robbers conspiring to chloroform you and Mr. Smith some night and make off with your effects?" she inquired.
We both laughed.
"You're very much puzzled, aren't you, Mr. O'Ryan," she continued.
"I am, indeed."