She snapped out the words and the Duke stared at her and then suddenly he threw back his head and laughed.
“Here we are starting the same argument all over again,” he exclaimed and Elfa laughed too.
“I don’t think I could bear another eighteen years of it!” she commented.
“Is that how old you are?”
“I am cheating by one month. I shall be eighteen in June.”
“You are too young.”
“To marry?” Elfa enquired. “Caroline is twenty, but I always feel it is me who must look after and protect her. I don’t believe that it is age in years that counts, but the age of one’s intelligence.”
“And you think yours is very old?”
“I hope so,” Elfa answered simply, “but then Fairies, sprites and elves are ageless and live for ever.”
There was a twinkle in the Duke’s eyes as he remarked quizzically,
“Th
