"In this country?" asked Sir Harry.
"No," answered Weston, "in Italy."
"Lucky for yourself it is so," said the old knight; "otherwise, it would have been a misdemeanour, for which you must have been instantly committed."
"Please your worship," rejoined Weston, who was not one easily to lose his hold, "the girl is my apprentice."
"Show me her indentures," said Sir Harry West; "we may have cause to cancel them before we have done."
"I have them not here with me," answered the man, with a sullen look.
"Well, 'tis no great matter," replied Sir Harry West; "for, according to your own statement, they are null in themselves, if they do exist. You paid for her, you say, instead of receiving with her an apprentice fee--the law of England recognises no such transactions."
"Well," said the man, "she is my servant, at least, and has no right to quit me without due notice, that I might provide myself with another. A runaway servant is punishable by all laws!"
"If they run away without due cause," answered Sir Harry West; "but if there be cause, I think, Master Scully, we have no law to punish them."
"Certainly not," replied his worship. "If any master requires his servant to do what is against the law of God or man, the servant has a right to run away. When you brought her to my house last night to play on the lute, she seemed very well contented."