" Stefano greeted Miss Perkins in English, and with perfect courtesy. Then he turned a satirical eye upon me.
"My dear Miss Perkins, are you sure you and Andrea found the right Miss Fairbourn? This infant doesn't look old enough to be out of the schoolroom. What on earth am I to call her? I don't know her well enough to use a pet name, and the more formal mode of address---"
"Francesca will do nicely," I interrupted. I had felt sorry for him when I saw his infirmity, but his sarcastic manner of speaking about me, as if I were the infant he had called me, irritated me very much.
His thin smile broadened.
"I see you have a mind of your own---and a tongue to go with it. "

― Barbara Michaels , Wings of the Falcon