She assisted in untying the hood, and having removed the cloak, seated Barbara in a comfortable arm-chair by the fire.
Despite the Romaic costume worn by Jacintha, and the golden coins twisted in her hair, Paul had no difficulty in fixing her nationality.
"You are an Englishwoman?" he said, with a smile.
"Yes, sir, I am," was her reply, accompanied by a submissive little curtsey.
A few words on her part sufficed to give her history. Nurse in the service of an English doctor at Constantinople, she had, when returning home, been captured by Turkish pirates, and carried to Janina for sale, where she was purchased by Lambro, and brought to Castel Nuovo. Paul's ears tingled at the thought of an Englishwoman being sold in an Albanian slave-mart. He wondered whether she knew that she was now living in a free country. Her real name was Winifred Power, but Lambro would persist in calling her Jacintha.
It so happened that Paul was well acquainted with her native town, inasmuch as his school-days had been passed in its neighborhood. His allusions to places with which both were familiar drew tears to the woman's eyes.
"Ah! do not talk of home," she said. "Every week I can see from the windows here the steamer from Trieste on its way to England; a few days' sail only, and yet as impossible for me to reach as the stars."
"You're better off here," growled the old Greek. "I bought you, and by God I'll keep you. You are not to leave me till I—I—die—" He winced as if not liking the prospect presented by the last word.—"You have promised as much. I have treated you better than any Turk would. You live in a castle with fine dresses and plenty to eat and drink; and when I'm a—gone you'll have my savings, and can then go back to England. What more do you want?"
"Shall I be permitted to leave here after your death?" asked Jacintha, darting a strange look upon Lambro, who frowned, and said,—
"Who is to prevent you? What nonsense you talk! Why don't you ask our guests what they'll have for supper?"