'
'Then you wanted to see me again?'
'Certainly. You interested me extremely. I have never met another
man who could talk so well about sculpture as the Count
Steenbock.'
'Do you really always get what you want, Miss Racksole?'
'Of course.'
'That is because your father is so rich, I suppose?'
'Oh, no, it isn't!' she said. 'It's simply because I always do get what I
want. It's got nothing to do with Father at all.'
'But Mr Racksole is extremely wealthy?'
'Wealthy isn't the word, Count. There is no word. It's positively
awful the amount of dollars poor Papa makes. And the worst of it
is he can't help it.
He told me once that when a man had made ten millions no power
on earth could stop those ten millions from growing into twenty.
And so it continues.
I spend what I can, but I can't come near coping with it; and of
course Papa is no use whatever at spending.'
'And you have no mother?'
'Who told you I had no mother?' she asked quietly.
'I - er - inquired about you,' he said, with equal candour and
humility.
'In spite of the fact that you never hoped to see me again?'
'Yes, in spite of that.'
'How funny!' she said, and lapsed into a meditative silence.
'Yours must be a wonderful existence,' said the Prince. 'I envy you.'
'You envy me - what? My father's wealth?'
'No,' he said; 'your freedom and your responsibilities.'
'I have no responsibilities,' she remarked.
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