"Why, please?"
"I must be about my business."
"Enlistment?"
"Yes."
"In the Guides," she said, as though to herself.
He nodded.
"The Guides," she repeated, looking rather vacantly at a sun spot that waxed and waned on the dry carpet of fir-needles at her feet. "I have seen them. They are odd, with their furry headgear and their green jackets and boots and cherry-red breeches.... I have danced with officers of the Guides in Brussels.... I never thought that my first man friend would be an officer in the Guides."
"I never thought my best friend among women would be the first woman I ever robbed," he said rather grimly.
"Oh, but you haven't done it yet! And I don't see how you propose to do it."
He looked up, forcing a smile: