“Indeed!” she murmured, with tears in her eyes. “I say I will not be carried, and you say this is folly!”

“So it is.”

“No, it isn’t!”

“It is folly, I think. At any rate, the origin of it all is.”

“I don’t agree to it. And you needn’t get so angry with me; I am not worth it.”

“Indeed you are. You are worth the enmity of princes, as was said of such another. Now, then, will you clasp your hands behind my neck, that I may carry you down without hurting you?”

“No, no.”

“You had better, or I shall foreclose.”

“What’s that!”

“Deprive you of your chance.”