‘Oh, you needn’t look at it, mama,’ he said, watching her. ‘At least, not till I have a real gun. Besides,’ he added rather mournfully, ‘I brush my teeth now.’
‘Oh—I’m glad to hear it!’
‘Yes,’ Leone answered, with his hands in his pockets. ‘You see, papa does—so I suppose I must, too.’
‘But I always told you to!’ Maria could not help smiling. ‘Was not that enough, child?’
‘Oh, yes, of course. But it’s different. I want to be like papa.’
Maria had not been prepared for this speech, and the smile faded from her face.
‘You could not do better,’ she said gravely. ‘He is an honest gentleman, if ever there was one.’
‘I’d give anything to look like him, too. But I suppose that’s impossible. I’d like to have a dark, grave face, like his, and at the same time to look so smart—most of all on horseback.’
‘You cannot change your looks, dear,’ Maria managed to say, and she pretended to continue her inspection of the room, lest he should see her face just then.