"Don't say anything so flat as that."

"Oh, no, you don't catch me saying that!" cried Clifford.

"Yes, you must come to Germany," Madame Munster continued. "I will show
you how people can be talked about, and yet not seem to know it. You
will be talked about, of course, with me; it will be said you are my
lover. I will show you how little one may mind that--how little I shall
mind it."

Clifford sat staring, blushing and laughing. "I shall mind it a good
deal!" he declared.

"Ah, not too much, you know; that would be uncivil. But I give you leave
to mind it a little; especially if you have a passion for Miss Acton.
Voyons; as regards that, you either have or you have not. It is very
simple to say it."

"I don't see why you want to know," said Clifford.

"You ought to want me to know. If one is arranging a marriage, one tells
one's friends."

"Oh, I 'm not arranging anything," said Clifford.

"You don't intend to marry your cousin?"

"Well, I expect I shall do as I choose!"

The Baroness leaned her head upon the back of her chair and closed her
eyes, as if she were tired. Then opening them again, "Your cousin is
very charming!" she said.

"She is the prettiest girl in this place," Clifford rejoined.

"'In this place' is saying little; she would be charming anywhere. I am
afraid you are entangled."

"Oh, no, I 'm not entangled."

"Are you engaged? At your age that is the same thing."

Clifford looked at the Baroness with some audacity. "Will you tell no
one?"

"If it 's as sacred as that--no."

"Well, then--we are not!" said Clifford.

"That 's the great secret--that you are not, eh?" asked the Baroness,
with a quick laugh. "I am very glad to hear it. You are altogether too
young. A young man in your position must choose and compare; he must see
the world first. Depend upon it," she added, "you should not settle that
matter before you have come abroad and paid me that visit. There are
several things I should like to call your attention to first."

"Well, I am rather afraid of that visit," said Clifford. "It seems to me
it will be rather like going to school again."

The Baroness looked at him a moment.

"My dear child," she said, "there is no agreeable man who has not, at
some moment, been to school to a clever woman--probably a little older
than himself. And you must be thankful when you get your instructions
gratis. With me you would get it gratis."

The next day Clifford told Lizzie Acton