“Have you then decided against me too?”
“I?” asked Rose. “What have I to do with questions of etiquette? I am only a child: so considered at least.”
“You a child—an angel like you?”
“Ask any of them, they will tell you I am a child; and it is to that I owe this conversation, no doubt; if you did not look on me as a child, you would not take this liberty with me,” said the young cat, scratching without a moment’s notice.
“Mademoiselle, do not be angry. I was wrong.”
“Oh! never mind. Children are little creatures without reserve, and treated accordingly, and to notice them is to honor them.”
“Adieu then, mademoiselle. Try to believe no one respects you more than I do.”
“Yes, let us part, for there is Dard’s house; and I begin to suspect that Josephine never sent you.”
“I confess it.”
“There, he confesses it. I thought so all along; WHAT A DUPE I HAVE BEEN!”