“They have gone out, to look for money, for the landlord won’t accept any surety, and we have nothing to sell.”
“All this is very sad; what does your mother say?”
“She only weeps, and yet, though she is ill and cannot leave her bed, they are going to take her to prison. By way of consolation the landlord says he will have her carried.”
“It is very hard. But your looks please me, mademoiselle, and if you will be kind I may be able to extricate you from the difficulty.”
“I do not know what you mean by ‘kind.’”
“Your mother will understand; go and ask her.”
“Sir, you do not know us; we are honest girls, and ladies of position besides.”
With these words the young woman turned her back on me, and began to weep again. The two others, who were quite as pretty, stood straight up and said not a word. Goudar whispered to me in Italian that unless we did something for them we should cut but a sorry figure there; and I was cruel enough to go away without saying a word.
CHAPTER XV
The Hanoverians