She had been defending herself by a repetition of the editor's comment of "filibuster." But at the same moment that Drake's glance met hers she had just waked up to the humour of her conduct, and recognised it as a veritable child's device.

She could not but laugh, and, laughing there into the eyes of the man, she lost her hostility to him.

However, Mrs.Willoughby made an effort to recover it.
'Well, I don't see,' she said to Drake, 'what right you have got to marching into other people's countries even though they are black.' 'Ah!' Drake answered.

'That's precisely what I call, if I may say so, the fireside point of view.

We obey a law of nature rather than claim a right.