Remembering the coolly brazen line I had
taken and the assumptions she had drawn from it, I could think of no
desert wide enough to hide my confusion, no pit sufficiently deep to
shelter my utterly crestfallen head.
In any case, I had not managed my attack at all triumphantly. From the
first skirmish the adversary had retired with all the honors on her
side. Carrying the matter with a high hand, she had dazed me into brief
inaction, and then, as I gave signs of rally, had retreated in what
to say the least was a highly strategic way. Well, let her go for the
moment! She could scarcely escape me. I would see the thing through, I
told myself with growing stubbornness; but I didn't feel that the doing
of a civic duty was what it is cracked up to be. Not at all!
I felt the need of a cocktail with a kick to it. But I did not get one.
However, the cabbage soup was eatable, if primitive; and, in fact, no
part of the dinner could be called distinctly bad.
Having finished my coffee, I went outside feeling more cheerful. It was
dark now. A lantern swinging from the entrance cast flickering darts
of light about the courtyard, the rough paving-stones, the odd old
galleries and stairs.
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