“O, no, quite the contrary.”
“I am Mlle. Lowndes, Nora Lowndes.”
“Then you are not French.”
“No, I am an American.”
“Then, won’t you please speak English? It has been so long since I heard it.”
“You speak English?” Miss Lowndes looked surprised.
“But yes. I speak it, you see, because my mother is American, and would have me speak as well as read her language.”
“How perfectly delightful. It is much easier for me, of course. Let us begin right away. Shall I sit here? Of course you want to know about your father first thing and then we will talk business.”
“You have seen my father? You know him?”
“Oh, yes, for I have been helping the nurses at Madame Hautecœur’s chateau which she has given for a convalescents’ home during the war. I have just come from there.”