“No, it is not. I am proper where I am; I would be improper if I was over there.”
“In America men always walk on the outside.”
“But we are not in America, we are in Lucerne, and that is Europe, and for Europe I am right. Mon Dieu, do you think that I do not know!”
Rosina shrugged her shoulders.
“I am really distressed when we meet any Americans, because I am sure that they think that you have not been well brought up.”
Von Ibn shrugged his shoulders.
“There are not many Americans here to think anything,” he said carelessly, “and all the Europeans whom we meet know that I am well brought up whichever side I may choose to walk upon.” He bowed again to some carriage people.
She trailed her pace a little and then paused; he was such a temptation that she could not resist.
“I do wish,” she said earnestly, “that to please me you would do as I ask you, just this once!”
He stopped short and stared first at her and then at the lake.