"Is it a joke ?" "Indeed it is," she declared, laughing afresh, "and the best I've ever enjoyed.

Wasn't it funny, Poleon"-- she turned gayly to the Frenchman, but he stood like one petrified--"to see him debating coolly whether he cared for me enough to face the world with me, and trying to explain to you that he was too good to marry a squaw?
Oh, you were very gentlemanly about it, sir, and you wouldn't have hurt my feelings for the world!" "Necia!" "That's your Dixie chivalry, I suppose.

Well, I've played with you long enough, Lieutenant Burrell, I'm tired of the game, and you interest me no longer." "You--you--say you've been playing with me!" stammered the man.

The bottom of things seemed suddenly to slide from under him; he was like one sinking in some hideous quagmire.

He felt as if he were choking.
"Why, of course," she cried, scornfully, "just as you took me up for amusement.