Do you think he is ?" "My dear, I don't know what you're talking about," said Mrs.Peck, with a touch of acidity.
Columbine laughed a little.

"Do you know, Rufus ?" she said.
She did not look at him with the question; there was a quivering dimple in her red cheek that came and went.
"I'd like to know," said Rufus with simplicity.
"Would you, really ?" Columbine polished the last plate vigorously and set it down.

"The Minotaur," she said, in the tone of a schoolmistress delivering a lecture, "was a monster, half-bull, half-man, who lived in a place like the Spear Point Caves, and devoured young men and maidens.
You live nearer to the Caves than any one else, don't you, Rufus ?" Again she ventured a darting glance at him.

His look was still upon her, but its fiery quality was less apparent.

He met the challenge with his slow, indulgent smile.
"Yes, I live there.