"I don't ever seem to have noticed it before, but there is.

No! I've got to do this thing alone to-night, all of it, for you have no place in it, and I can't let the little girl go on like this.

The sooner that soldier knows the better." He leaned down and touched her brown mouth with his grizzled lips.

"Thank you, Alluna, for making a man of me when I'd nearly forgotten.

Now you stay here." He knew he could count on her obedience, and so he left her.