"D'you think it's on the level, Tess?"
"I know it is! Imagine that poor child, Dick, cooped up in a palace, starving and parching herself for fear of poison!"
"But how are you going to get to her? You can't bowl over Gungadhura's guards with a sunshade."
"Samson wrote this for me."
Dick Blaine scowled.
"I imagine Samson's favors are paid for sooner or later."
"So are mine, Dick! The beast has called me Theresa three times this afternoon, and has had the impudence to suggest that his preferment and my future happiness may bear some relation to each other."
"See here, Tess, maybe I'd better beat him and have done with it."
"No. He can't corrupt me, but he might easily do you an injury. Let him alone, Dick, and be as civil as you can. You did splendidly this evening—"
"Before I knew what he'd said to you!"