"All right, Bush-Ranger. '_En voiture, pour le purgatoire, messieurs, mesdames._'"
"That's good!" Anne said heartily. "I always know they're mending when they crack jokes."
"You've a hard nut to crack in _me_, colonial snippet!" retorted Chesney, with another grin.
Anne grinned a cheerful little grin back at him.
"No, _you're_ soft enough, old sport," said she; "it's your husk of morphia that's hard."
They exchanged this rough, free speech when alone. In the presence of others, Anne was most respectful, almost demure.
"What a hypocritical little demi-semi-savage you are, Bush-lass," he said to her one day. "You give me the rough of your tongue like a slangy lad when we're '_enfin seul_'--and before the Chief Eunuch and the rest, butter would congeal upon it, by Gad!"
"There's a time for everything," replied Anne Harding sedately. "If you _prefer_ it, sir, I'll be buttery with _you_ from this moment."
Chesney laughed outright. He was feeling quite happy just then, under the effects of a sixth of morphia.
"Just you try it on," he said, with feigned grimness. When she had just given him the drug he really liked her. Her funny, brisk little ways and speech amused him. He longed sometimes to romp with her, as if she had been the child that she looked when her elfish smile stirred her face. Once when she had bent over him as she withdrew the needle from his arm, he had tweaked one of the black curls that hung near. He had not believed that her little lean hand could give such a stinging smack as she bestowed upon his.
"You little spitfire!" he had exclaimed angrily. "Don't dare to take liberties with me because I'm ill."
"Don't _you_ dare to take liberties with _me_, ill or well," Anne Harding had replied, red with anger. "You treat me with proper respect, or I'll go back to London by the next train. Suit yourself."
She wouldn't talk or jest with him for the rest of that day, but by the next morning she seemed to have regained her usual cool poise, and remarked, as she served his early cup of cocoa:
"I surmise from your pretty behaviour that you've decided to keep me and your self-respect."
"Thou hast said, O Bush-Bully," replied he gravely. "I'll even address your Bullyship in the third person if it be required."