“Madame speaks English, no doubt?”
“Oh, yes, but a leetle. I am live long time in Jairsey, where is more English as French peoples.”
After this sample speech it seemed to him that he might get on better with the lady in her native tongue, so he asked her for a cup of coffee in her own language, and stood at the counter while he drank it, and talked to her of indifferent matters, she nothing loth.
“You have lived a long time in Jersey,” he said. “Does that mean a long time in this house?”
“Except one year I have lived in this house all the time, nine years. I was only nineteen when I undertook the position of dame du comptoir. I could not have undertaken such a responsibility with a stranger, but the proprietor is my uncle, and he knew how to be indulgent to my youth and inexperience.”
“And then, a handsome face is always an attraction. You must have brought him good fortune, madame.”
“He is kind enough to say so. He found it difficult to dispense with my services while I was absent, though he had a person from London who had been much admired at the Crystal Palace.”
“And you, madame,—was it a feminine caprice, the desire for change, which made you abandon your uncle during that time?”
“I left him when I married,” replied the lady, with a profound sigh. “I returned to him a heart-broken widow.”
“Pray forgive me for having recalled the memory of your grief. I am a stranger in this place, and I am here on a somewhat delicate mission. My first visit is to this house, because I knew I should find intelligence and sympathy here rather than among my own countrymen. I am fortunate in meeting with a lady who has occupied an important position at St. Heliers for so long a period. I have strong reasons for wishing to discover the history of a gentleman who came to the Island some years ago—I do not know how many—after having been unfortunate in the world. He was a naval man.”