s hand, genuinely waiting for her reply.

"Oh, my dearest Charlene! My most loyal friend!" Edith exclaimed, her emotions running high. She was always an easily moved person, and her friend''s words had stirred up her memories of the childhood like a sweet dream.

"When those boys tried to bully me, it was you who stood up for me and got me out of trouble. You were like an angel in my heart back then!"

"I only used the privilege of a noble lady." The wheelchair-bound girl sighed, "It''s a pity that I''ve never run or jumped together with you. I didn''t even have the strength to stand up and teach them a lesson for you."

"But all the children had to listen to you. You were the queen of us all," Edith said.

"But they could never know, I listened to you." Charlene added.

The two blossoming girls giggled heartily, their hands clasped together.

The serious atmosphere just now had vanished without a trace.

Asking herself, Edith didn''t quite like the remnants of Raphael Saint-Clemont''s old-fashioned aristocratic mannerisms. However, as she had mentioned before, she didn''t harbour any stereotyped hostility against the aristocratic class.

Thus, she felt no burden in socializing with her two friends or imagining marrying into their family. Despite being aristocrats, they were good people first and foremost, and her old friends.

Edith thought to herself that she didn''t dislike Charlene''s brother either. Perhaps, when the revolutionary situation became less tense, she would pity him and give him happiness