Page:Under the Deodars - Kipling (1890).djvu/63

 old and you're just twenty, and you've been waiting for two hours outside the school in the cold. And now I've met you, and now we're walking home together. Does that suit you, My Imperial Majesty?

—No. We aren't children. Why can't you be rational?

—He asks me that when I'm going to commit social suicide for his sake, and, and I don't want to be French and rave about ma mère, but have I ever told you that I have a mother, and a brother who was my pet before I married? He's married now. Can't you imagine the pleasure that the news of the elopement will give him? Have you any people at home, Guy, to be pleased with your performances?

—One or two. We can't make omelettes without breaking eggs.

—(Slowly.) I don't see the necessity

—Hah! What do you mean?

—Shall I speak the truth?

—Under the circumstances, perhaps it would be as well.

—Guy, I'm afraid.

—I thought we'd settled all that. What of?

—Of you?

—Oh, damn it all! The old business! This is too bad!

—Of you.

—And what now?

—What do you think of me?

—Beside the question altogether. What do you intend to do?

—I daren't risk it. I'm afraid. If I could only cheat

—No, thanks. That's the one point on which I have any notion of Honour. I won't eat His salt and steal too. I'll loot openly or not at all.