“You have the goodness within—you perhaps have not the beauty without; but what does that matter when goodness within is more valuable? It is but to look at you to know that you have got that.”
“If you were really to see into my heart, Riki, you would perceive that I am an exceedingly selfish and very ungrateful girl.”
“Oh dear!” said the Comtesse Riki, “what is it to be what you call ungrateful?”
“Not to be thankful for the blessings that are given you,” I made answer.
She glanced at me in a puzzled way.
“Some day, perhaps,” I said, “you will visit our England and see for yourself what the life is like.”
“I should like it,” she replied—“that is, after my nuptials.”
“But you are only a child yourself.”
“Not a child—I am sixteen; I shall be seventeen in a year; then I shall leave school and go home, and—and—”
“Begin your fun,” I said.