“She is not fine, and if she be, she shall be plucked of her finery;” exclaimed the sister: “I'll tear her eyes out; what business has she to look at me, and speak so insolently? I'll have her face flayed; her hair shall be plucked up by the roots;” and she stamped with her little foot.
“We'll have her scalped, girl!” condoled her brother.
“Yes, this is the way you always think to manage me; by laughing at me,” cried the spoiled child, in renewed agony of tears.
“Why, what is the matter?” demanded the Seigneur, wondering, and startled by these threatening allusions: “What is the meaning of all this, Samson?”
“Oh,” answered the latter, striving to perpetrate a pun, “Only that we have brought Phin a handmaiden, and she finds her handsomer than is agreeable;—but there is many a servant comelier than the mistress.”
“Let me behold this Paragon,” said the Seigneur, at the same time rising, and moving towards the door of the inner room, that had been left ajar by the rude Seraphine, in her indignant exit. Pushing it slowly open, he beheld Amanda, with half-averted form, seated upon a chair, her head bowed, but her face wearing an expression of proud serenity mixed with grief. His first impulse was to retire; but pity, respect, admiration, and even awe, bound him to the spot, and he remained gazing till curiosity and commiseration alike combined to induce him to address a figure so incongruous with that mean place, and whose majestic sorrow seemed too sacred for interruption.
“Young lady, by your leave; pray pardon me; but can a stranger be of service to you?” he at length enquired.
Amanda looked upward. “Oh, if you are, as you seem to be, a gentleman, do not leave me;” she exclaimed beseechingly, as she slowly rose and approached him: “do not leave me, but convey me back to Stillyside, from whence I have been stolen by that man. Oh, sir, you do not know with what a load of thanks its owner will repay you, should you rescue me from this base durance.”
The seigneur looked enquiringly at Samson, but the latter seemed more disposed to wait to see how the seigneur regarded the appeal, than to reply to the tacit question.
“Why have you been brought hither, and against your will?” resumed the seigneur, respectfully.