“D – did you say – my country?”
“I thought you would have guessed by now why the Prince is here.”
Carmela raised her eyes to the Earl’s face as she said:
“I – I do not – understand what you are – saying to me.”
“Then let me make it clear,” the Earl replied. “As your guardian I have arranged for you to marry - in fact a very brilliant match from your point of view - His Royal Highness Prince Frederich!”
Carmela felt her anger rising.
“You have arranged – this without – asking for my – permission to do so?”
“I cannot believe you would object.”
She thought there was a note of genuine surprise in the Earl’s voice and she said quickly:
“But of course I object! Can you believe that I, or any other woman, would want to marry a man she had never met, and talked to for only a few minutes?”
