"I thought that you would understand that I did not wish to see you again.

I thought that you would accept my wish." Mario Escobar laughed unpleasantly.
"Why should I ?" "Because most men have that chivalry," said Joan.
Mario Escobar only smiled this time.

He smiled with narrowed eves and a gleam of white teeth behind his black moustache.

He was amused, like a man who receives ridiculous answers from a child.
"It is easy to see that you have read the poets--Joan," he replied deliberately.
Joan's face flamed.

Never had she been addressed with so much insolence.
Chaff she was accustomed to, but it was always chaff mitigated by a tenderness of real affection.