"To get rid of me is it necessary to make me take a nap?" he protested.
She sighed and tucked the tennis-bat under her left arm. "Come," she said, moving forward, "my father will ask me what I have done to amuse you, and I had better hunt up something to tell him about. You'll want to see the groves of course--"
"Yes, but I'm not going to drag you about with me--"
"Come," she repeated; and as he stood his ground obstinately: "Please?"--with a rising inflection hinting at command.
"Why on earth don't you play tennis and let me sit and watch you?" he asked, joining and keeping step with her.
"Why do you ask a woman for reasons, Mr. Hamil?"
"I know it; so in revenge I'm going to spoil yours. Our trip is called 'Seeing Florida,' so you must listen to your guide very attentively. This is a pomelo grove--thank you," to the negro who opened the gate--"here you see blossoms and ripe fruit together on the same tree. A few palmettos have been planted here for various agricultural reasons. This is a camphor bush"--touching it with her bat--"the leaves when crushed in the palm exhale a delightful fragr--"
She turned toward him with coldest composure. "_That_ never happened, Mr. Hamil."
A slight colour remained in his face; hers was cool enough.
"Did you think it happened?" she asked. He shook his head. "No," he repeated seriously, "I know that it never happened."
She said: "If you are quite sure it never happened, there is no harm in pretending it did.... What was it you called me?"
"I could never remember, Miss Cardross--unless you tell me."
"Then I'll tell you--if you are quite sure you don't remember. You called me 'Calypso.'"
And looking up he surprised the rare laughter in her eyes.
"You are rather nice after all," she said, "or is it only that I have you under such rigid discipline? But it was very bad taste in you to recall so crudely what never occurred--until I gave you the liberty to do it. Don't you think so?"
"Yes, I do," he said. "I've made two exhibitions of myself since I knew you--"
"_One_, Mr. Hamil. Please recollect that I am scarcely supposed to know how many exhibitions of yourself you may have made before we were formally presented."
She stood still under a tree which drooped like a leaf-tufted umbrella, and she said, swinging her racket: "You will always have me at a disadvantage. Do you know it?"