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52 "I'm so young?"

"O young Uncle!"

"You oughtn't to call me uncle, Marianne: I'm too young for it."

The tinkling bells:

"What am I to call you then?"

"Anything you like. Not uncle."

"Nunkie?"

"No, no . . ."

"But I can't call you Henri . . . or Van der Welcke?"

"No, that's too difficult. Better say nothing."

The tinkling bells:

"Nothing. Very well. . . . But am I to say U or je?"

"Say je."

"But it seems so funny . . . before people!"

"People, people! You can't always bother about people."

"But I have to: I'm a girl!"

"Oh, Marianne, people are always a nuisance!"

"A desert island would be the thing."

"Yes, a desert island . . ."

"With a motor-car . . ."

"And just you and me."

They both laughed; and her little bells tinkled through his boyish laugh.

"What a perfect night!"