"I hope you will change your mind soon, Miss Trafford," I said; "I will try not to be very disagreeable."
"Oh, I have changed my mind," she said, quickly; "I changed it as soon as you came in at the door. I always judge by first sight. If I love people when I first see them, I always love them; and if I hate them, I always hate them. I never change my mind afterwards."
"Do you think that is a good plan?" I said. "Don't you think it is rather an unfair way of judging?"
"Oh, I don't know about that," she said; "it always answers very well for me. I liked you when you came in at the door, and I mean always to like you. I wish Ambrose would bring the dinner, the gong sounded long since. I am sure it is time for it, and you must be so hungry. Miss Lindsay, will you please ring the bell?"
One of the footmen soon appeared with a small round table, which he placed between Miss Trafford's couch and my chair. The table was already prepared for dinner, with everything in its proper place.
"Oh, it is so nice to have you here," said Miss Trafford. "Do you know, I haven't been downstairs to dinner for five months. Isn't that dreadful? And I have always had dinner quite alone, except twice, when there was no one staying here, and then papa came up to my room and had dinner here. It was such fun; he and I had this little table, and Ambrose came in here to wait. I laughed all the time, and so did papa; it seemed such a little room after the dining-room, and the three men did not at all know where to stand, because there was no room for them to come close to the table."
"Then you have only been ill five months?" I said.
"Only five months! As if that were not long enough," she said; "it seems more like five years to me!"
"Yes, it is a long time," I said; "but I was afraid you might have been ill longer still. I do not know what made you ill."
"Didn't papa tell you? How funny of him! Now, if I had been writing to you, I should have told you the whole story. What did he tell you?"