"You must marry," said the Baroness. "You must make a good marriage."
"No one will marry me, because I have no dowry," answered Sabina with perfect simplicity.
"Some men marry girls who have none. You are very pretty, you know."
"So my mother used to tell me when she was in a good humour. But Clementina always said I was hideous, that my eyes were like a little pig's, quite inside my head, and that my hair was grey, like an old woman's, and that I was as thin as a grasshopper."
"You are very pretty," the Baroness repeated with conviction; "and I am sure you would make a good wife."
"I am afraid not!" Sabina laughed. "We are none of us good, you know.
Why should I be?"
The Baroness disapproved.
"That is a flippant speech," she said severely.
"I do not feel flippant at all. I am very serious. I wish to earn my living."
"But you cannot—"