“Perhaps it was I, but I gave the credit elsewhere.”
“Now we have to discover the merit that lit the path for you to here.”
“Will you not put on your glasses? It will be hard to find.”
“How long did you say you prayed to the Serpent for the gift of speech?”
“Over two years; and the prayer was answered in a different way from what I thought.”
“By the way, you spoke a little time ago of Mariana. Who was she?”
“A kind of waiting-maid at Marble House. I do not know what else she could be called, unless a sewing-maid. But she was beautiful, and different altogether from any sewing-maid that I had ever seen. And even in a week I grew to love her, for underneath a cold and smooth exterior she had the sweetest, kindest disposition of anyone I ever knew.”
“Did she derive much happiness from living there?”
“None, except two hours every Wednesday night. And then she played upon a violin. I never heard such music, though it was weirdly sad. But Mr. Barringcourt blinded my reason to believe there was no harmony in what she played.”
“You do not give him an enviable character.”