"No," answered the girl, stubbornly. "I mean what I said. You with the
rest. You'd act rightly toward a man, I suppose, as a matter of course.
You can't act rightly toward a woman, a girl, without expecting to be
paid for it."

Max was taken aback. Here was a change, indeed, from the poor, clinging,
pleading, imploring creature of twenty minutes before. He reddened a
little and let her hand slip from his grasp.

"I believe you are right," he said, at last, "though you are rather
severe. But let me tell you that the word 'chivalry' is misleading
altogether. It is applied to those middle-aged Johnnies--no, I mean
those Johnnies of the Middle Ages--who were supposed to go about
rescuing damsels in distress, isn't it? Well, you don't know what
happened after the rescue was effected; but I like to suppose, myself,
that the girl didn't just say 'Thanks--awfully' and cut him dead forever
afterward."

"You think the knight expected payment, just as you do, for his
services?"

"I think so. A very small payment, but one which he would appreciate
highly."

The girl leaned against the wall by the door and looked at him with
something like contempt for a moment. Then she smiled, not
encouragingly, but with mockery in her eyes.

"You have a tariff, I suppose," said she, cuttingly, "a regular scale of
charges, as, perhaps, you will say the knights had. Pray, what is your