and me on purpose. It isn't kind."

"Are you in need of kindness just now? You don't exactly strike one in
that way, you know. But your people will be coming in a day or two, I
suppose. I've no doubt they'll be kind to you, as you call it--whatever
that may mean. One speaks of being kind to animals and servants, you
know--that sort of thing."

Nothing can outdo the brutality of a perfectly unaffected young girl
under certain circumstances.

"I don't class myself with either, thank you," said Brook, justly
offended. "You certainly manage to put things in a new light sometimes.
I feel rather like that mule we saw yesterday."

"Oh--I thought you didn't class yourself with animals!" she laughed.

"Have you any particular reason for saying horridly disagreeable
things?" asked Brook coldly.

There was a pause.

"I didn't mean to be disagreeable--at least not so disagreeable as all
that," said Clare at last. "I don't know why it is, but you have a
talent for making me seem rude."

"Force of example," suggested Johnstone.

"No, I'll say that for you--you have very good manners."

"Thanks, awfully. Considering the provocation, you know, that's an
immense compliment."

"I thought I would be 'kind' for a change. By the bye, what are we
quarrelling about?" She laughed. "You began by saying something very
nice to me, and then I told you that you were like the mule, didn't I?
It's very odd! I believe you hypnotise me, after all."

"At all events, if we were not intimate, you couldn't possibly say the
things you do," observed Brook, already pacified.

"And I suppose you would not take the things I say, so meekly, would
you?"

"I told you I was a very mild person," said Johnstone. "We were talking
about it yesterday, do you remember?"

"Oh yes! And then you illustrated your idea of meekness by knocking down
the first man we met."

"It was your fault," retorted Brook. "You told me to stop his beating
the mule. So I did. Fortunately you stopped him from sticking a knife
into me. Do you know? You have awfully good nerves. Most women would
have screamed and run up a tree--or something. They would have got out
of the way, at all events."

"I think most women would have done precisely what I did," said Clare.
"Why should you say that most women are cowards?"

"I didn't," answered Brook. "But I refuse to quarrel about it. I meant
to say that I admired you--I mean, what you did--well, more than
anything."

"That's a s