LUCIE. Have you heard people talking about Annette in connection with him?
MADELEINE. No. Well, then, yes; I have. Listen, dear. We’re rather peculiarly placed, aren’t we? Three orphan girls. I’m married; twice, though I’m only twenty-eight, and you’re married, for the first time.
LUCIE. And for the last, I should hope.
MADELEINE [laughing] Tut, tut!
LUCIE [laughing too] Monster!
MADELEINE. Then you took our youngest sister to live with you. A perfect arrangement, so long as you look after her as you would after your own girl, or as mother would have done.
LUCIE. She’s eighteen.
MADELEINE. That’s just it.
LUCIE. I don’t see what danger there is for Annette.
MADELEINE. Nor do I. But we’re not alone in the world. As it is, people look astonished—of course it’s a silly little provincial place—at her going out alone.