Mariposa lowered her lids.
“I can’t tell. What makes anybody change his mind? You think differently. Things happen that make you think differently.”
“Well, what’s happened to make you think differently?”
The lines appeared again on the smooth forehead. She shifted her glance to the window and then back to the hands on her lap.
“Suppose I don’t want to tell? I’m not a little girl like Edna, to have to tell every thought I have. Mayn’t I have a secret, Mrs. Willers?”
She looked at her interlocutor with an attempt at a coaxing smile. Mrs. Willers saw that it was an effort, and remained grave.
“I don’t want you to have secrets from me, dear, no more than I would Edna. Mariposa,” she said in a lowered voice, leaning forward and putting her hand on the girl’s knee, “is it because of some man?”
Mariposa looked up quickly. The elder woman saw that, for a moment, she was startled.
“Some man!” she exclaimed. “What man?”
“You haven’t changed your mind because of Essex?”