“I don’t know,” I replied.
“Oh, but you must! Think now; no girl here, nor in my country, nor in any other, I think, on the Continent, would be allowed to go about unattended—not at least before her marriage.”
“But,” I answered, “we don’t think about getting married at all in England—I mean girls of my age.”
“If you don’t think it impertinent, would you tell me what your age may be?”
I said I should be sixteen in May.
“But surely you will think of your marriage within about a year or two, will you not?”
I laughed.
“What are you talking about?” I said. “Really, Comtesse, I cannot understand you.”
“Fray don’t call me that; call me Riki. I like you so very much; you are different from others.”
“Every one tells me that,” I answered, a little bitterness in my tone.