“I can’t think of any more stories till I’ve had my tea.”
“You shan’t have any tea unless you earn it,” she stipulated. “Now that Madame Dornaye’s no longer present, you can tell me of some of your grown-up love affairs, some of your flesh-and-blood ones.”
“I’ve never had a grown-up love affair,” he said.
“Oh, come! you can’t expect me to believe that,” she cried.
“It’s the truth, all the same.”
“Well, then, it’s high time you should have one,” was her conclusion. “How old did you say you were?”
“I’m thirty-three.”
She lifted up her hands in astonishment. “And you’ve never had a love affair! Fi donc! I’m barely twenty-eight, and I’ve had a hundred.”
“Have you?” he asked, a little ruefully.
“No, I haven’t. But everybody’s had at least one. So tell me yours.”