This, Mr. Applebo politely declined to do. Having instincts of his own, and a decency peculiar to the cat family, he merely blinked at Hermione and waited for her to start that most ruthless of all duels which cynics have tried to misinterpret as "love." "Then you only interfered," said Hermione, "because you thought that I might have shot the keeper. It wasn't that you wished to render a service to a woman. It was merely a general humanitarian desire to prevent bloodshed ... a tragedy." "Nope." "What?" "It wasn't that. You would not have shot him. Never! He would have dragged you weeping and half clothed..." "Never!" "Yes. That was what I wanted him to do. But when the time came I changed my mind. At least, I changed my behaviour. My mind is still the same. You were quite in the wrong. The game-keeper was right ... and meant to obey orders if it cost him his life. But you would not have shot him. I had no real fear of that, and theoretically, I wanted him to march you off and teach you a lesson. But when you threw that despairing look around, something brought me to your aid with a rush. I could have broken his neck without a twinge of compunction. He rather expressed my feeling when he said, '... tha'ar's the he-one!'" Applebo laughed. "I felt like that ... as though I were some wild creature and my mate was in trouble ... I beg your pardon, Cécile..." Again the rush of emotion, followed by the cold shower. Hermione's pulses seemed filled with wine and her youthful body with that warm, intoxicating glow, incomprehensible as it was delicious ... when there came that "Cécile," and she felt like the hot iron plunged by the smith into his tub of water. No doubt, the tempering process was good for her, but she did not like it, and hissed a little, just as does the glowing metal. "Then it wasn't chivalry," she snapped, "but a sort of primitive male instinct." "Absolutely. A woman with a gun and a lot of slaughtered little plover is no inspiring object for chivalry ... which is, after all, principally a masculine pose. But she may awaken other sentiments. That is what you have done. I no longer regret Hermione and my rejected verses ... and that reminds me that you have not yet told me that I might transfer my attentions to you. I think that you are the most lovely creature that I ever saw, and you might awaken lots of tenderness, if you would. I am sure that I could write exquisite things to you. I would feel them, too ... which I never did toward Hermione..."