'Who would make friends with me, Miss Ansell?' Debby asked quietly.
'I shall "make out friends" with you, Debby, if you call me that,' said Esther, half laughing, half crying. 'What was it we used to say in school? I forget, but I know we used to wet our little fingers in our mouths and jerk them abruptly towards the other party; that's what I shall have to do with you.'
'Oh, well, Esther, don't be cross! But you do look such a real lady. I always said you would grow up clever, didn't I, though?'
'You did, dear, you did. I can never forgive myself for not having looked you up.'
'Oh, but you had so much to do, I have no doubt!' said Debby magnanimously, though she was not a little curious to hear all Esther's wonderful adventures, and to gather more about the reasons of the girl's mysterious return than had yet been vouchsafed her. All she had dared to ask was about the family in America.
'Still it was wrong of me,' said Esther, in a tone that brooked no protest. 'Suppose you had been in want and I could have helped you?'
'Oh, but you know I never take any help!' said Debby stiffly.
'I didn't know that,' said Esther, touched. 'Have you never taken soup at the kitchen?'
'I wouldn't dream of such a thing. Do you ever remember me going to the Board of Guardians? I wouldn't go there to be bullied, not if I were starving. It's only the cadgers who don't want it who get relief. But, thank God, in the worst seasons I have always been able to earn a crust and a cup of tea. You see, I am only a small family,' concluded Debby, with a sad smile, 'and the less one has to do with other people the better.'
Esther started slightly, feeling a strange new kinship with this lonely soul.