"Come," said the girl, changing her tactics swiftly. "It is I who am beastly, I know it. I'm going to try now to be good. Tell me honestly, as a friend, do you think that Pierre has absolutely no chance of marrying Yuki?"
Dodge studied the restless eyes for sincerity before he answered. "He has a chance. If she is willing to throw over her parents, her Emperor, and her native land, in order to run away to him,—they may find protection. But if I know Japanese character at all, Miss Yuki would die first—and she ought to. The one decent thing for Le Beau is to release her."
"But to run away, by night perhaps, in actual danger of her life—oh, how romantic!" sighed Gwendolen, clasping her hands. It was done to irritate, and it succeeded.
"Romantic? Damfoolic!" sniffed Dodge, before he could stop himself.
"Mr. Dodge!"
"By George, it slipped out! I beg your pardon, Miss Todd, I should not have said it."
"For what do you ask pardon—the expression, or the thought?"
"The expression, of course. I was a mucker to use it in your presence."
"Am I to understand that the thought underlying your remarkable utterance is unchanged?"
"Why, er—that such a step would be foolish, and—er—unworthy?" stammered the wretched youth, now as greatly disconcerted as even Gwendolen could wish; "why, of course I still think it. I have to think it!"