"_Carmen_ is your favorite opera, besides."

"Not to-night,"--whimsically.

"Go, then; but please recollect that if anything serious comes of your
folly, I did my best to prevent it. It's a scatter-brained idea, and
no good will come of it, mark me."

"I can take care of myself,"--truculently.

"So I have often been forced to observe,"--dryly.

(I wondered what it was all about.)

"But, uncle dear, I am becoming so dreadfully bored!"

"That sounds final," sighed the old man, helping himself to the
_haricots verts_. (The girl ate positively nothing.) "But it seems
odd that you can't go about your affairs after my own reasonable
manner."

"I am only twenty."

The old man's shoulders rose and fell resignedly.

"No man has an answer for that."

"I promise to tell you everything that happens; by telegraph."