"Not at all," I replied. "I know how you feel, Letitia. That's why I come here."
"Do you?" she asked. "Then this isn't your first—"
"Nor my twentieth offence," I replied, laughing. She sighed.
"I'm glad of that. It's my first—really. I feel like a criminal."
I pointed with my broken pipe-stem.
"You'll find the best path there," I said.
"I think I'll stay, if you don't mind, Bertram."
"Stay, by all means," I replied, and went on fishing. Letitia was the first to speak.
"It's hard always trying to be—dominant," she remarked, "isn't it?"
"Why, I rather like it," I replied.