"For one thing, I have _no_ relations--at least, none who could look after me; and, for another, by my father's will, I must stay with Uncle George until my marriage." "Until your marriage!" Sir Maurice laughs.

"Forgive me! I should not have laughed," says he, "especially as your emancipation seems a long way off." Really, looking at her in the subdued lights of those pink lamps, she seems a mere baby.
"I don't see why it _should_ be so far off," says Tita, evidently affronted.

"Lots of girls get married at seventeen; I've heard of people who were married at sixteen! But _they_ must have been fools.
No?
I don't want to be married, though, if I did, I should be able to get rid of Uncle George.

But what I should like to do would be to run away!" "Where ?" asks Rylton, rather abominably, it must be confessed.
"Oh, I don't know," confusedly.

"I haven't thought it out." "Well, _don't,"_ says he kindly.
"That is what everyone would say," impatiently.