"But I don't mean them only," said Christian, standing to her guns; "I
mean the individual--you and me! Just anybody--we're all the same. The
Shan van Voght has got to free us from each other before she takes on
England!" She looked at Larry; the seriousness left her face, and she
shook back the dark hair from her forehead with just the same gay,
mutinous toss of the head that a young horse will give when the rider
picks up the reins. "I may have been stuck down here in a hole!" said
Christian, mocking him; "but anyhow, I haven't lived in England and
lost my eye!"

"What about seeing from a distance, and seeing the whole and not the
part?" retorted Larry. "What about a bird's eye view?" He had risen to
his feet and was looking down at her, feeling the moral support of
physical elevation.

"That depends on the bird!" said Christian. "Now, if it were a goose,
for example! Like--Hi! Dogs! Look, Larry! Look! Down by the furze
bushes! A _huge_ rabbit!"

The discussion closed abruptly, as such discussions will, when the
disputants are at the golden age, and views and opinions are winged,
and have not yet become ballast, or, which is worse, turned to
mooring-stones.




CHAPTER XVII