Esmeralda laughed slightly.
“I might say the same of you,” she said. “I thought that ‘Lady Lilias’ was quite a woman. How do you manage this great place?”
“I have been used to it all my life,” said Lilias. She smiled and blushed. “You will not find it so difficult when you have tried.”
Esmeralda looked at her in her direct way.
“I don’t know yet that I shall ever try,” she said, very quietly.
Lilias began to see now that Esmeralda was different to the girls with whom Lady Lilias had associated. Not one of them would have spoken so openly and frankly. She did not like Esmeralda the less.
“Oh, I hope so! I hope so!” she said; “for Trafford’s sake.”
“You are very fond of him?” said Esmeralda, after a pause. The two girls were standing by the window, and the bright sunlight only served to accentuate Esmeralda’s fresh loveliness.
“Oh, yes—yes,” said Lilias. “We have been together all our lives; we are just brother and sister.”