"I don't know; it isn't so very long since I saw you last."
"A great many things may happen in a very short time."
"That's true."
Dorothy sighed; but Miss Vernon was smiling. Then she said, with an air which would be grave, but was not:
"There are women and women. I have heard people say that when one becomes a woman one should show a consciousness of the responsibilities of womanhood. I hope I don't show too much of that kind of thing."
"I don't think you ever will do that."
"Sha'n't I? You never can tell. A man I danced with last week--he was quite old, over thirty--said that it bursts upon you all at once, what it means to be a woman. I don't know what he knows about it, as he's only a man; but I've noticed that some men, when they're old, do seem to know a good deal about women--or they pretend to. What do you think of this dress?"
"It's a perfect dream!"
"Really?"
"I never saw anything so lovely."