Baroness Orczy

“ Ilonka, throwing all prudence to the wind, and wilfully defying mama’s blackest looks, gave herself over to the delights of her day-dreams. As a child, playing with an absolutely novel and fascinating toy, quite unable to understand that it is brittle, and only made for momentary pleasure, she coquetted and flirted with this pleasant emotion, which a handsome young officer’s ardent words had kindled in her heart. ”

“ And Ilonka’s ears were agreeably tickled by those tender and passionate words, that, in her youth, her innocence, her warped education, she understood so little. How could a young girl understand? brought up, as she had been, kept away, till she was “out” from every society, save that of her father and her mother, never reading a line that did not pass under the rigorous censorship of her mother’s eyes, taught and shown nothing, which might lead her to understand the depth of a human heart, the passions that fill a man’s soul. ”

“ Two great tears were already trickling down her cheeks: mama always had the power of making her unhappy.
And “mama” embarked on the usual lecture; of how a young noble girl should behave, how she should never allow one young man, more than another, to pay any attention to her, unless her parents have previously authorised her to do so; that conduct such as Ilonka’s to-night was unmaidenly. ”