“And you yourself?” he asked. “Tell me how you occupy yourself. You have friends—amusements?”
She shrugged her shoulders ever so slightly.
“My brother has large estates,” she said, “and with them come many duties. I see that our peasant women are properly brought up, and that they retain their skill in lace work. Then there is music, and when we are at Castle Reist we hunt. It is true that I have not many friends of my own order, but that is scarcely to be expected. The care of so many of those who are dependent upon one is a very absorbing duty. We give a dowry to every girl who marries suitably amongst our own people. For many generations this has been a religion with us. Tell me, then, is it not so with the maidens of your country?—I speak, of course, of those who are of noble birth.”
He shook his head.
“I think not,” he answered. “You see, for them there are many diversions. They play games, hunt, shoot, and ride with their brothers and their brothers’ friends when they are at their estates. Then for half the year they live in London, and every night there are dances, concerts, theatres, and parties of all sorts.”
She nodded gravely.
“That is what I have heard,” she said. “They take life so much more lightly than we who live in quieter places. Here there is born with us the consciousness that our rank has many obligations. There is not a peasant girl on my estates whom I do not know by name. It has been so with the women of our house for many generations.”
There was a short silence. Then she raised her eyes to his.
“Your own sisters?” she asked. “Are they, too, such as you describe?”
Brand smiled faintly.