"I would be pained if you were ill, but I would not go to the Hill every day," said Leam.
"No? Why this unfair preference?" he asked.
"Because I am not afraid of Mrs. Corfield," she answered.
"And you are of my mother?"
"Yes. She is severe."
"It is severe in you to say so," said Edgar gently.
"No," said Leam with her proud air. "It is true."
"Then you would not like to be my mother's daughter?" asked Edgar, both inflamed and troubled.
Leam looked him straight in the face, utterly unconscious of his secret meaning. "No," she answered, her head held high, her dark eyes proud and fixed, and her small mouth resolute, almost hard. "I would like to be no one's daughter but mamma's."
"I do love your fidelity," cried Edgar with a burst of admiration. "You are the most loyal girl I know."