'You're sleepy, child,' the Duchess suddenly said, 'and I am keeping you up with my talk.'
'No, indeed, Duchess, I am not in the least sleepy, and it's very kind of you to come and talk to me.'
'Well, if you ain't sleepy you are sorrowful, or something like it. So your Dictator is going to try his luck again! Well, clear, I just wish you and I could help some. By the way, don't you take my countrymen here as just our very best specimens of Americans.'
'I hadn't much noticed,' Helena said listlessly. 'They seemed very quiet men.'
'Meaning that American men in general are rather noisy and self-assertive?' the Duchess said with a smile.
'Oh, no, Duchess, I never meant anything of the kind. But they do seem very quiet, don't they?'
'Stupid, I should say,' was the comment of the Duchess. 'I didn't talk much with Mr. Copping, but I had a little talk with Professor Flick. I am afraid, by the way, he thinks me very stupid, for I appear to have got him mixed up in my mind with somebody quite different, and you know it vexes anybody to be mistaken for anybody else. I meant to ask him what State he hailed from, but I quite forgot. His accent didn't seem quite familiar to me somehow. I wish I had thought of asking him.' The Duchess seemed so much in earnest about the matter that Helena felt inspired to say, by way of consoling her:
'Dear Duchess, you can ask him the important question to-morrow. I dare say he will not be offended.'
'Well, now that's just what I have been thinking about, dear child. You see, I have already put my foot in it.'
'Won't do much harm,' Helena said smiling—'foot is too small.'