"And am I such a lady?"
Stas pondered for a while, after which he replied:
"No, you are too small. All those others were grown up."
And it never occurred to him that probably no knight-errant had ever performed as much for his lady as he had done for his little sister. Plainly it appeared to him that whatever he had done was done as a matter of course.
But Nell felt aggrieved at his words; so with a pout she said:
"And you once said in the desert that I acted like a person of thirteen. Aha!"
"Well, that was once. But you are eight."
"Then after ten years I shall be eighteen."
"A great thing! And I shall be twenty-four! At such age a man does not think of any ladies for he has something else to do; that is self-evident."
"And what will you do?"