Winterbourne looked along the path.He saw a young lady walking toward them.
"American girls are the best girls," he said to the boy.
"My sister isn't the best,"said the child. "She's always getting mad with me."
"Maybe she gets mad with you because you do bad things," said Winterbourne.
The young lady had now come closer. She was wearing a white dress that was decorated with frills and ribbons. She was holding a parasol. She was very pretty. She stopped in front of Winterbourne. The boy was now using the stick to jump across the path. He pushed one end of the walking stick into the ground and jumped, again and again.
"Randolph," said the young lady, "what are you doing?"
"I'm climbing mountains," replied Rondolph. He turned toward Winterbourne and nodded his head. "He's an American man!" he said suddenly.
Winterbourne was not sure what to do. He stood up. Young men did not speak to young unmarried ladies who they did not know. It was not correct behavior. But the boy had almost introduced him. And when a pretty young American girl stands in fornt of you in a hotel garden, it is difficult to do nothing. So winterbourne decided to speak to her. He bowed.
"This young man and I have just met each other," he said, very politely.
The American girl looked quickly at Winterbourne. Then she turned away, and looked across the lake at the mountains.
"Have I been too bold?" Winterbourne thought. "We haven't been introduced. Maybe I shouldn't have spoken to her." But it was too late to stop the conversation now. W