"Why now, you incorrigible Giulia, did not you tell me of your fits of suppressed laughter while you were overhearing (actually eaves-dropping) that love dialogue between Tebaldo and Isaura? and of your laughing at her to her face, afterwards, in the presence of the other girls?"
"I gave her a pearl necklace," said the Duchess.
"Not till she married, months afterwards."
"Well, I own I let myself down on that occasion."
"As to letting yourself down, it is your keeping yourself up that I complain of—"
"O, what a beautiful butterfly!—"
"My dear Giulia, don't run after it and put yourself in a fever. You are not quite a child now!"
"No, but I was a child once; and when I was a child-Duchess of thirteen, I thought that if I did not keep my maids at a distance, they would not respect me. And my mother's word had always been, 'Never associate, child, with servants.'"
"Servants and slaves, that may apply to very well," said Vittoria, who had not surmounted class-prejudices, "but your maids-of-honour are well-born, and though for a time they occupy subordinate positions, eventually they will marry respectably, it is to be hoped."