Lord Dunbeg began to be amused by her impudence, and he even tried to lay down for her satisfaction one or two rules for selecting Countesses, but long before he had invented his first rule, Victoria had darted off to a new subject.
“Which would you rather be, Lord Dunbeg? an Earl or George Washington?”
“George Washington, certainly,” was the Earl's courteous though rather bewildered reply.
“Really?” she asked with a languid affectation of surprise; “it is awfully kind of you to say so, but of course you can't mean it.
“Indeed I do mean it.”
“Is it possible? I never should have thought it.”
“Why not, Miss Dare?”
“You have not the air of wishing to be George Washington.”
“May I again ask, why not?”
“Certainly. Did you ever see George Washington?”