'Then the society here,' Ethelinda went on, without much consideration for the other's feelings--perhaps she thought he was too cheap to have any--'it's really something too dreadful for words. Why, those people in the poky little house over there, with only four rooms and a front door they can't open, have never had the decency to call upon me. Not that I should take any notice, of course, if they did, but it just shows what they are. And the other day I actually overheard one frightful creature in a print dress, with nothing on her head but a great tin-tack, ask another horror "which she liked best--_make-believe tea or orange-juice_!"' 'Well, _I_ prefer make-believe tea myself,' said the jester, 'because, you see, I can't get the orange-juice down, and so it's rather bad for the dress and complexion.' 'Possibly,' she said scornfully. 'I'm thankful to say I've not been called upon to try it myself--even Miss Winifred knows better than that. But, anyhow, it's horribly insipid here, and I suppose it will be like this always now. I did hope once that when I went out into the world I should be a heroine and have a romance of my own.' 'What is a romance?' he asked. 'I thought you wouldn't understand me,' she said; 'a romance is--well, there's champagne in it, and cigarettes, to begin with.' 'But what is champagne?' he interrupted. 'Something you drink,' she said; 'what else could it be?' 'I see,' he said; 'a sort of orange-juice.' 'Orange-juice!' Ethelinda cried contemptuously; 'it's not in the least like orange-juice; it's----' (she didn't know what it was made of herself, but there was no use in telling him so) 'I couldn't make you understand without too much trouble, you really are so _very_ ignorant, but there's a good deal of it in romances. And dukes, and guardsmen, and being very beautiful and deliciously miserable, till just before the end--that's a romance! My milliner used to have it read out to her while she was dressing me for that ball I told you about.' 'Do you mind telling me what a heroine is?' he asked. 'I know I'm very stupid.' 'A heroine? oh, _any_ doll can be a heroine. I felt all the time the heroines were all just like me. They were either very good or very wicked, and I'm sure I could be the one or the other if I got the chance. I think it would be more amusing, perhaps, to be a little wicked, but then it's not quite so easy, you know.' 'I should think it would be more uncomfortable,' he suggested. 'Ah, but then you see you haven't any sentiment about you,' she said disparagingly. 'No,' he admitted, 'I'm afraid I haven't. I suppose they couldn't put it in for elevenpence three farthings.' 'I should think not,' Ethelinda observed, 'it's very _expensive_.' And then, after a short silence, she said more confidentially, 'you were talking of Master Archie just now. I rather like that boy, do you know. I believe I could make something of him if he would only let me.'