And I have heard you do it to perfection." His daring half irritated, half amused her.

It was her turn to flush.
Her thin, sallow face and dark eyes lit up vindictively.
"One should never remind one's friends of their vices," she said with animation.
"Ah--if they _are_ vices! But flattery is merely a virtue out of place--kindness gone wrong.

From the point of view of the moralist, that is.

From the point of view of the ordinary mortal, it is what no men--and few women--can do without!" She smiled grimly, enjoying the spar.

They carried it on a little while, Meadows, now fairly on his mettle, administering a little deft though veiled castigation here and there, in requital for various acts of rudeness of which she had been guilty towards him and others during the preceding days.