Sofia laughed lightly, and affectionately pinched the cheek of the maid.
“And you, my little one,” she said in liquid French—“you yourself are too ravishingly pretty to keep out of trouble. Do you know that?”
Her little one looked more than ever demure as she enquired after the hidden meaning of madame la princesse.
“Because you will marry too soon, Thérèse—too soon some worthless man will persuade you to dedicate all those charms to him alone.”
“Oh, madame!”
“Is it not so?”
“Who knows, madame?” said Thérèse, as who should say: “What must be, must.”
“Then there is a man! I suspected as much.”
“But, madame la princesse, is there not always a man?”
“Then beware!”