“You’re quite sure?” Letizia pressed.
“Positive.”
“The bearded lady was very nice when I shook hands with her,” said Letizia pensively. “But I wouldn’t much like to kiss her if I was a man, would you?”
“Not at all,” Nancy declared with a grimace.
“Mother?”
“What now?”
“Do you think she’d mind if I asked her if she had any bits of beard when she was eleven?”
“No, darling, I don’t want you to meet those freaks again. I can’t think why Mr. Drake ever introduced you to them. It was very naughty of him.”
Letizia turned a pale and reproachful face to her mother.
“I think Mr. Drake is the nicest man who ever lived,” she proclaimed solemnly. Then in a voice that strove to to be nonchalant, she asked how old he was.