I, of course, could have no such pretensions.

If I represented anything it was a perfect freshness of sensations and a refreshing ignorance, not so much of what life may give one (as to that I had some ideas at least) but of what it really contains.

I knew very well that I was utterly insignificant in these men's eyes.

Yet my attention was not checked by that knowledge.

It's true they were talking of a woman, but I was yet at the age when this subject by itself is not of overwhelming interest.