Or the next knight-errant you light upon may prove something ruder than--Captain Berkeley!' 'You are not Captain Berkeley ?' 'No.' She stared at him, breathing hard.

Then, 'I was a fool, and I pay for it in insult,' she said.
'Be a fool no longer then,' he retorted, his good-humour restored by the success of his badinage; 'and no man will have the right to insult you, _ma belle_.' 'I will never give _you_ the right!' she cried with intention.
'It is rather a question of Mr.Dunborough,' he answered, smiling superior, and flirting his spy-glass to and fro with his fingers.

'Say the same to him, and--but are you going, my queen?
What, without ceremony ?' 'I am not a lady, and _noblesse oblige_ does not apply to me,' she cried.

And she closed the door in his face--sharply, yet without noise.
He went down the stairs a step at a time--thinking.

'Now, I wonder where she got that!' he muttered.