The Marquis turned round.
“Are you suggesting,” he asked, “that I am not showing my daughter the affection she is entitled to?”
He spoke rather loudly and harshly and, because it frightened her, Nolita said quickly,
“I am sorry – I should not, have – said that, but I am trying to – help.”
As she spoke, the tremor in her voice was so obvious that the Marquis stared at her in surprise.
Then he said,
“You are frightened! Why did you come here if it was going to make you afraid?”
“My aunt – made me,” Nolita answered. “I have – nowhere else to go and – no money.”
The Marquis looked as if he suspected that she was not, telling him the truth.
Then he said in a different tone of voice,
“When my mother told me that Lady Katherine had suggested that her niece should come here as a companio
