'And I may go with you?' mischievously.
'No; if I go, I go alone.'
'Let me walk round and admire your house on wheels.'
'You do not see it to advantage,' said Zita regretfully. 'It is not dressed out. The pans and brushes and mats are stowed away, that make it glitter just like a lifeguardsman. The inside is taken out. The curtains are unhung. And then those dratted fowls are a nuisance. They have taken a fancy to the van. If Master Drownlands and I were on better terms, I'd ax him to have the fowls killed, or the shed boarded up, that they might not come in.'
'What? you are not on good terms with old Ki?'
'Only middling. I have had to teach him to keep his distance.'
'Oh! he wanted to come to too close quarters—small blame to him,' said Mark, laughing.
'He and I could not agree about terms—that was it,' said Zita, with an impatient and annoyed toss of her head.
'Let the van come to my place,' said Runham. 'Then I will stow it away out of reach of all fowls.'
Zita shook her head. 'I like to look at my van every day.'