It didn't make her less young to be married, and she didn't see why it should.
Martin understood, and that was why it was so far-fetched of Alice to suggest that her attitude could turn Martin's armor into broadcloth, and hint at his having ceased to be a knight because he had been seen with a girl--never mind whether her face was white and her lips red, and her hair too golden.
"I'm a kid, I tell you," she said aloud, throwing out her justification to the whole world.

"I am and I will be, I will be.

I'll play the fool and revel in it as long as I can--so there.

Who cares ?" And she laughed once more, and ran her hand over her hair as though waving all these thoughts away, and shut the windows and turned out the lights and went upstairs to her bedroom.

"I'm a selfish, self-willed little devil, crazy about myself, thinking of nothing but having a good time," she added inwardly.