“Will you tell me what they are?”
“I must earn my own – living,” she said firmly. “I cannot batten on Maria – forever. She – she cannot afford it.”
“And how do you propose to set about this formidable task?” he asked.
She hesitated at this, twisting one end of her sash between her fingers.
“I-I thought perhaps – when I had rested a little,” she replied hesitantly, “I would go to London – unless I was fortunate enough to find – something to do here.”
She coloured a little and added,
“You told me once to go back to the country, but I don’t think I could – make some honest farmer – happy even if there was one who – who wanted to marry me.”
“I have a better suggestion to make,” the Marquis declared.
“What is – it?” she enquired.
“That you should come to Stade Hall. I have a position f
