“You mean that I am sure of being happy,” she said. “Why shouldn’t I be? Wouldn’t you be happy if you were going to marry the man you—cared for?”
Lady Ada’s smile grew ghastly in its artificiality.
“And you care for him so much?” she said.
The color rose to Esmeralda’s face. “Don’t women generally care for the men they are going to marry?” she asked, naïvely.
Lady Ada laughed.
“Not always. Sometimes a girl has to marry for—well, for all sorts of reasons other than love for her future husband; and then—” She paused, stopped by Esmeralda’s direct and questioning glance.
“But that is not the case with you,” she continued. “It will be quite a love match, will it not?”
Esmeralda thought her question over before replying.
“Yes; I think so.”