“She is a very cross lady, not at all kind to me, and she will very likely put me in prison,” said Belinda, the tears welling over.
The Duke, who had had previous experience of the ease with which Belinda wept, watched in a fascinated way the large drops rolling down her cheeks without in the smallest degree impairing her beauty, and could not find it in his heart to blame Matthew by having succumbed to so much pathetic loveliness. After a moment, he said: “I wish you will not cry! No one will put you in prison, I assure you!”
Belinda obediently stopped crying, but said in a doleful voice: “Yes, she will, sir, for I have broken my indentures.”
Light began to break in upon the Duke. “Were you apprenticed to Mrs. Pilling?” he asked.
“Oh, yes, and I was learning to trim the hats very well, but then Mr. Liversedge said that if I went away with him I should live like a lady, and have a purple dress, and a ring to put on my finger. So I went with him, but Mrs. Dovercourt was cross, and I did not like it in Oxford above half, and now I think I would like not to live with Mr. Liversedge any more. But I daren’t go back to Bath, because besides putting me in prison Mrs. Pilling would very likely beat me as well.”
“Does she do so?” demanded the Duke, quite shocked at the thought that anyone could so maltreat the lovely Belinda.
“Yes, because I am very stupid,” explained Belinda, without rancour. “And Mr. Liversedge boxed my ears, too, though I said just what he told me I must. I am very unhappy!”
“No, no, don’t be unhappy!” said the Duke, terrified lest she should dissolve once more into tears. “No one shall beat you, or box your ears, I promise! You must tell me where your home is, and I will—”
“I haven’t got a home,” said Belinda.
“Oh!” said the Duke, somewhat dashed. “But you have relatives, have you not, Miss—What is your name?”