'And in London?'
'The distress is before you and all round you; and such distress as I suppose your heart cannot imagine.'
'Then,' said Esther softly, 'as far as that goes, Pitt, it seems to me an argument for living in London.'
He met her eyes with an earnest warm look, of somewhat wistful recognition, intense with his own feeling of the subject, glad in her sympathy, and yet tenderly cognizant of the way the subject would affect her.
'There is one point, among many, on which you and Miss Frere differ,' he said, however, coolly, going back to his drawing.
'She does not like, or would not like, living in London?'
'I beg your pardon! but she would object to your reason for living there.'
Esther was silent; her recollection of Betty quite agreed with this observation.
'You say you have seen her?' Pitt went on presently.
'Yes.'