The door opened and a housemaid appeared.
“Bring some tea for Miss Walford,” Lady Bettine ordered, “and be quick about it!”
“Very good, my Lady, but you knows they don’t ’urry themselves downstairs.”
“Well, they had better do so or I will tell his Lordship!”
The maid uttered a little squeak as if the threat had scared her and shut the door.
“I am obviously – causing a lot of – trouble,” Nolita murmured,
“If you are apologetic about it, they will walk all over you,” Lady Bettine answered.
She stood with her arms folded looking at Nolita before she said,
“You are much too pretty to be a companion. Grandmama will not like it. She does not want young women here. She is afraid that awful Esmond Farquahar will fancy them.”
Nolita drew in her breath.
She was thinking how Mr. Farquahar,
