"I regarded it as a piece of undeserved good fortune," was the unembarrassed reply.
"Indeed? Most strange! It seems to me that one would hardly choose the thistle when the rose might be had."
"Of course, I cannot presume to pass judgment upon your opinions."
"True, because you do not know me; but my idea is almost universal."
"Yet surely it is very one-sided."
"Well, then, I will not combat further your peculiar taste, with which you would scarcely find any one to sympathize among companions of your own age. I will rather believe, for your credit, that it was not so easy to leave your friends."
"But it was very easy, for I had none."
"Is that possible?" cried Fräulein von Walde. "Did you have no intercourse with any one?"
"Oh, yes, with the people who paid me."
"You gave lessons?" asked Herr von Walde.