“I want to get back to England and to feel that we are safe with our friends,” Nicholas replied. “And what is more essential than anything else, is for you to be the most beautiful lady of the whole Season which I am quite certain you will be.”
Alvita laughed.
“I think that you are betting on an uncertainty,” she said. “After all my Papa and Mama have been forgotten in England and we came away in such a big hurry that I only hope I have not forgotten her book with the addresses of the relations who might still be alive.”
“Forget them!” Nicholas exclaimed.
He spoke so sharply that Alvita looked at him in some surprise.
“What do you mean?” she asked. “After all it is nice for us to have some people, even if they are old and rather dull, who we are related to.”
“But you have forgotte
