Can't we talk of something more amusing ?" Violet threw back her head with a restless movement, but she did not meet his eyes.

"I am accustomed to amusing myself," she said.
He stooped to pick up a marker that had fallen from her book.

"It is a useful accomplishment," he observed, as he handed it to her, "for those who have time to cultivate it." She raised her arms with the careless, unstudied grace of a wild creature.

Her eyes were veiled.
"I assure you it is far more satisfying than tilting at windmills," she said.
Max straightened himself.

There seemed to Olga something pitiless about him, a deadliness of purpose that made him cruel.