"I hadn't noticed that you have grown much since last week; are you like the mushrooms that grow in one night? Come and let me measure you."
"Laugh as much as you please," she continued with a charming pout; "I am not a little girl any longer; and I am going to be very big."
"Those are excellent resolutions, in which you must persevere;—and might I know, my dear young lady, what has put these noble ideas into your head? For, a week ago, you seemed to be very well pleased to be a little girl, and you crunched almonds without a thought of compromising your dignity."
The little lady looked at me with a curious expression, cast her eyes around the room, and, when she had made certain that no one could overhear us, leaned toward me with a mysterious air and said:
"I have a lover."
"The devil! I no longer wonder that you don't want pastilles; but you were unwise not to take some; you could have played at having dinner with him, or you could have exchanged them for a shuttlecock."
The child shrugged her shoulders disdainfully and seemed to be profoundly sorry for me.—As she retained the attitude of an offended queen, I continued:
"What is this victorious person's name? Arthur, I suppose, or Henri."—They were two little boys with whom she was in the habit of playing, and whom she called her husbands.
"No, not Arthur or Henri," she said, fixing her bright, clear eye on me—"a gentleman."—She put her hand above her head to give me an idea of his height.
"As tall as that? Why, this is becoming serious.—Pray, who is this tall lover?"