“Do you belong to London?” she asked.
“No, ma’am,” answered Jane with a slight hesitancy, for which it seemed hard to account. Could some mistress have raised an objection to country girls?
“To what part of the country do you belong?” Lucy went on.
“I didn’t belong to the country, ma’am,” she said. “I’ve always lived in a town. I come from Hull.”
“Oh, I understand,” Lucy replied. “Have you any relatives or friends in London?”
Again the curious hesitancy.
“No relatives here, ma’am.”
Lucy began to think she understood.
“Nor any friends?” she pressed. “No friends at all? Are you engaged to be married or likely to be so?”
Jane Smith’s expression changed.