“Yes,” assented the girl, “but I have inherited more than that—from my mother.”
The girls waited for Zerlina to finish. They hesitated to question her about her mother since it was evidently a forbidden subject with her.
“I have inherited her voice,” she added confidentially. “It may be that I shall be a singer some day.”
“Oh, really?” cried all the girls in unison.
“You will sing for us now, won’t you?” added Ruth.
“If you wish,” said Zerlina. “I will get my guitar.” And she disappeared in the darkness.
“Isn’t she pretty?” commented Mollie.
“How soft her voice is, and what good English she speaks,” marveled Ruth. “But then, we must remember her great-grandmother was educated by a noble lady and transmitted her learning and manners straight to her.”
“Poor thing!” exclaimed Bab. “I am really very sorry for her. The instincts of her great-grandmother and her grandmother keep up a sort of warring inside of her. In the winter time she’s her great-grandmother, and in the summer time she’s a real Gypsy. There are times when she sighs for a steam-heated house, and times when she sighs for the open.”
“But it’s mostly the open she gets,” said Grace. “What do you suppose she meant when she said that Granny Ann was very strict?”