“If I might presume to offer to escort you . . . but I dare not think you would accept.”
“I should be delighted, and if you were to ask my father I am sure he would not refuse his permission.”
“Are you sure of that?”
“Quite sure, for otherwise he would be guilty of impoliteness, and my father would not do such a thing. But I see you don’t know the manners of the country.”
“I confess I do not.”
“Young ladies enjoy great liberty here—liberty which they lose only by marrying. Go and ask, and you will see.”
I went to M. d’O—— and made my request, trembling lest I should meet with a refusal.
“Have you a carriage?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Then I need not give orders to get mine ready. Esther!”