"To be most surprised. To give me a drink of brandy; and then go, nicely and quietly, like a good 'boy.'"

An amused look crossed Le Breton's face. Innocent mischief had not come into his life before.

"I am most surprised," he said. "I flattered myself I could tell a woman anywhere."

"I'm not a woman, not until next year. So that must account for your deplorable mistake."

"You look even younger than twenty. Are you English or American?"

"Why can't I have a choice of being either French or Russian or Italian or Spanish or German?"

"Only an English or an American girl would play this sort of a trick. Not that I've had any dealings with either. I'd like to hear you were American."

"What's wrong with being English?"

"I dislike and despise the English," he replied, a latent note of savagery in his deep voice.

"Then you'll have to dislike and despise me, because I'm one of them."