“She is the daughter of my step-father’s younger sister. I promised him to look after her.”
Selden looked at her musingly. How far she had already travelled from her humble beginning! How interesting it would be to watch her future—to see what she made of herself, to what heights she rose.
“What are you thinking?” she asked.
“I am thinking you will go far,” he said. “Some day a man will be prime minister because of you, or there will be a great poem, a great play, a great picture of which you were the inspiration; and I shall go to the minister or to the artist and congratulate him, and say, ‘Monsieur, I foretold this long ago, one evening at Monte Carlo!’”
Her eyes were shining again and she laid her hand lightly upon his.
“Perhaps you are right, my friend,” she said, “but it is not of that I am thinking.”
“What are you thinking?”
“That I hope to find love some day,” she said, and raised her hand for an instant to her eyes.