"Lord Brandolin will like Madame Sabaroff," says Dodo, a very _éveillé_ young lady of thirteen. "Fair prophetess, why? And who is Madame Sabaroff? A second O. K., a female Stepniak?" "What are those?" says Dodo. "She is very handsome, and a princess in her own right." "She gave me two Ukraine ponies and a real droschky," says the Babe. "And Boom a Circassian mare, all white, and each of us a set of Siberian turquoises," says Lilie. "Her virtues must be as many as her charms," says Brandolin. "She is a lovely creature," adds Lady Usk, "but I don't think she is your style at all; you like fast women who make you laugh." "My tastes are catholic where your adorable sex is in question," says Brandolin. "I am not sure that I do like fast women; they are painful to one's vanity; they flirt with everybody." Lady Usk smiles. "The season before last, I recollect----" "Dearest lady, don't revert to pre-historic times. Nothing is so disagreeable as to think this year of what we liked last year." "It was Lady Leamington last year!" cries the terrible Babe. Brandolin topples him over on the grass and hoists him up on his own shoulders. "You precocious rascal! What will you be when you are twenty?" "Babe's future is a thing of horror to contemplate," says his mother, smiling placidly. "Who is Madame Sabaroff?" asks Brandolin, again, with a vague curiosity. "A princess in her own right; a god-daughter of the Emperor's," says Dodo. "She is so handsome, and her jewels--you never saw such jewels." "Her father was Chancellor," adds her mother, "and her husband held some very high place at court, I forget what." "Held? Is he disgraced, then, or dead?" "Oh, dead: that is what is so nice for her," says Dodo. "Heartless Dodo!" says Brandolin. "Then if I marry you four years hence I must kill myself to become endeared to you?" "I should pity you indeed if you were to marry Dodo," says Dodo's mother. "She has not a grain of any human feeling, except for her dog." Dodo laughs. She likes to be called heartless; she thinks it is _chic_ and grown-up; she will weep over a lame puppy, a beaten horse, a dead bird, but she is "hard as nails to humans," as her brother Boom phrases it. "Somebody will reign some day where the Skye reigns now over Dodo's soul. Happy somebody!" says Brandolin. "I shall be too old to be that somebody. Besides, Dodo will demand from fate an Adonis and a Cr[oe]sus in one!" Dodo smiles, showing her pretty white teeth; she likes the banter and the flirtation with some of her father's friends. She feels quite old; in four years' time her mother will present her, and she means to marry directly after that. "When does this Russian goddess who drops ponies and turquoises out of the clouds arrive here?" asks Brandolin, as he picks up his racquet to resume the game. "She won't be here for three days," says Lady Usk. "Then I fear I shall not see her." "Oh, nonsense! You must stay all the month, at least."