"'Say, I'm only a little child who have come to see. Go thy ways.'
"'But suppose they don't go their ways,' pouted Ninon.
"'Go thine then, and come home.'
"'Now, mother dear, am I not almost old enough to have a lover?'
"'Lover indeed! Silly child, but yesterday I rocked thee in the cradle there. I'm a fool to let thee go.'
"Then Ninon, in fear, kept still, lest her mother should change her mind, a thing which women sometimes do, even in France—"
"Now I protest against innuendoes," cried Lottie. "It is the
Frenchman, as it is man all over the world, who changes his mind.
Adam first said he wouldn't eat the apple, and then he did!"
"Where's your authority for that?" said Harcourt.
"It's in the Bible," answered Lottie, stoutly; at which there was a great explosion.
"Miss Marsden equals modern commentators in amplifying the text," laughed Hemstead.