“Then be fair and true to him.”
“Certainly! I intend to be so—in the long run. So we shall be really sisters, Yanna! And we shall not have to learn to love one another. It must be pretty 94 hard on a girl to give up her brother, and learn to love another girl at the same time.”
“I never found it hard to love you, Rose. How soon will you give Antony——”
“I have given Antony all I mean to give him for some time. Mamma has made great preparations for me this season, and I intend to take the full benefit of them. It would be an awful disappointment to her if she found out that my heart was not my own. There is a sea of pleasure before me, and I mean to be in the full tide of the swim.”
“And if in that ‘swim’ your foot tips the tangles, take care, dear Rose. You can never tell what depths there are beneath them.”
“What do you mean by ‘tangles’?”
“I mean unwise or unworthy lovers and companions—too much pleasure in any form—dancing, dressing, flirting, champagne drinking, and things of that kind. You know.”
“Champagne drinking! Yes, it is delightful. It makes me feel as if my blood were made of flame. I am half divine after a glass of champagne. But I never take more than one glass. I know better.”
“I would not take that one. If a thing is dangerous in large quantity, it is not safe in small quantity. I would not touch it at all.”
“I could not induce Antony to taste with me, though I drank from the glass myself.”