At length he ventured, “Must you go away to-day?”
“I don't suppose there's any 'must' about it.”
“Oh, it would be jolly,” he cried. “You see, we could--explore about here--and,”--he ended rather lamely,--“it's a lovely country.”
“We've seen a lot of it. It IS lovely,” she said, her eyes upon his face as if appraising him. “I should like to know you better,” she added, with sudden and characteristic frankness, “so I think we will stay. But you will have to be awfully good to me.”
“Why, of course,” he cried. “That's splendid! Perfectly jolly!”
“Then we had better find father and tell him. Come along,” she ordered, and led the way back to the camp.
The young man followed her, wondering at her, and giving slight heed to the chatter she flung over her shoulder at him as she strode along through the bushes.
“What's the matter with you?” she cried, facing round upon him. “You were thinking about me, I know. Confess, now.”
“I was,” he acknowledged, smiling at her.
“What were you thinking? Tell me,” she insisted.
“I was thinking of what your father said about you.”
“My father? About me? What did he say? To you?”
“What was it? Tell me. I must know.” She was very imperious in her manner. The youth only smiled at her.
“I think possibly your father was right,” he replied, “when he said you 'boss the show.'”
“Oh, that's what he said, eh? Well, I guess he's about right.”
“Don't what? 'Boss the show'? Well, I boss my own show, at any rate. Don't you?”
“Don't I what, exactly? Boss the show? Well, I don't think we have any 'show,' and I don't believe we have any 'boss.' Dad and I just talk things over, you see.”
“But,” she insisted, “some one in the last analysis must decide. Your menage, no matter how simple, must have a head. It is a law of the universe itself, and it is the law of mankind. You see, I have done some political economy.”
“And yet,” said the young man, “you say you run your own show?”
“Exactly. Every social organism must have a head, but every individual in the organism must live its own free life. That is true democracy. But of course you don't understand democracy, you Canadians.”
“Aha! There you are! You Americans are the most insular of all the great peoples of the world. You know nothing of other people. You know only your own history and not even that correctly, your own geography, and your own political science. You know nothing of Canada. You don't know, for instance, that the purest form of democracy on this American continent lies outside the bounds of the U. S. A.”