"We should be rather tall," Ralph said, ruefully. "We have grown so horribly, in the last few months. Still, some women are as tall as we are."
"Yes, some women are," Christine said, "but men look after them and say, 'What big, gawky women!' and you don't want to be looked after. If people did so, they would see that you didn't walk one bit like a woman, and that your shoulders were very wide, and your arms very strong, and--
"Oh no! It wouldn't do at all. I must think it over.
"I suppose you want that great blue-coated bear to go?" and she nodded at Tim Doyle who--not being able to speak a word of her language--was always indulging in the most absurd pantomime of love and devotion; causing screams of laughter to the merry German girl.
"Yes, Tim must go too, Christine."
"Ha, ha!" laughed the girl. "Fancy him as a woman."
"What is she saying about me, Mister Percy?"
"She says you would make a very pretty woman, Tim."
"Tare and ages, Mister Percy," Tim said, taking it quite seriously, "how could I do it, at all? I'd have to shave off all my beautiful beard and mustaches and, even then, I doubt if you would mistake me for a woman."
The boys screamed with laughter, and translated the Irishman's speech to Christine; who laughed so that her mother came into the room.