"Not you, it's the older women who balance all day on verandas, and let their daughters do whatever they please! In an American family, I am told, the young girl is supreme ruler. Is that true?"
Nina, laughing, shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know—I never thought about it! But over here I suppose a girl does not count at all? Tell me, according to your ideas, what her place should be."
"Oh, I do not say should. I merely state the fact: over here, a young girl plays a very small rôle. But then, for the matter of that, most people belong naturally in the background, and very few, whether they are women or men, have their names on the program."
"And you? What part do you play?"
For a moment his eyes gleamed. "That depends upon whether fate shall cast me to support a diva or to occupy an empty stage."
"And if fate allowed you to choose, I could easily imagine that you would prefer a part with very little action and as few lines as possible."
"You are quite wrong. I do not object to saying all that a part calls for, and, above all, I like action."
"That's true; I had forgotten! You are a soldier! I wonder why you went into the army?"
"It is the only career open to me."
Nina was thinking of Giovanni and his point of view as she asked, "Why are you not content to be merely Count Tornik?"