'I daresay! But you're not going to travel from Constantinople to the Pacific Ocean——'
'I might. One never can tell what one may like to do.'
'Oh, if it's because Tartar is useful "against the bites of sharks,"' answered Margaret, quoting Alice, 'learn it by all means!'
'Besides, there are all sorts of people in Paris. I'm sure there must be some Tartars. I might meet one, and it would be amusing to be able to talk to him.'
'Nonsense! Why should you ever meet a Tartar? How absurd you are!'
'There's one with me now—close beside me, at my elbow.'
'Don't be silly, or I'll ring off.'
'If you don't believe me, listen!'
He said something in a language Margaret did not understand, and another voice answered him at once in the same tongue. Margaret started slightly and bent her brows with a puzzled and displeased look.
'Is that your teacher?' she asked with more interest in her tone than she had yet betrayed.