“So am I, especially when I hear such singing as yours; and the song, too—I like it much, for it praises the sea. Where did you pick it up?”
“I got it from the composer, a young midshipman,” said Rose sadly; at the same time a slight blush tinged her brow.
Oliver felt a peculiar sensation which he could not account for, and was about to make further inquiries into the authorship of the song, when it occurred to him that this would be impolite, and might be awkward, so he asked instead how she had become possessed of so fine a guitar. Before she could reply Mr Donnithorne entered.
“How d’ee do, Oliver lad; going your rounds—eh?—Come, Rose, let’s have breakfast, lass, you were not wont to be behind with it. I’ll be bound this gay gallant—this hedge-jumper with his eyes shut—has been praising your voice and puffing up your heart, but don’t believe him, Rose; it’s the fashion of these fellows to tell lies on such matters.”
“You do me injustice, uncle,” said Oliver with a laugh; “but even if it were true that I am addicted to falsehood in praising women, it were impossible, in the present instance, to give way to my propensity, for Truth herself would find it difficult to select an expression sufficiently appropriate to apply to the beautiful voice of Rose Ellis!”
“Hey-day, young man,” exclaimed Mr Donnithorne, as he carefully filled his pipe with precious weed, “your oratorical powers are uncommon! Surely thy talents had been better bestowed in the Church or at the Bar than in the sickroom or the hospital. Demosthenes himself would have paled before thee, lad—though, if truth must be told, there is a dash more sound than sense in thine eloquence.”
“Sense, uncle! Surely your own good sense must compel you to admit that Rose sings splendidly?”
“Well, I won’t gainsay it,” replied Mr Donnithorne, “now that Rose has left the room, for I don’t much care to bespatter folk with too much praise to their faces. The child has indeed a sweet pipe of her own. By the way, you were asking about her guitar when I came in; I’ll tell you about that.
“Its history is somewhat curious,” said Mr Donnithorne, passing his fingers through the bunch of gay ribbons that hung from the head of the instrument. “You have heard, I dare say, of the burning of Penzance by the Spaniards more than two hundred years ago; in the year 1595, I think it was?”
“I have,” answered Oliver, “but I know nothing beyond the fact that such an event took place. I should like to hear the details of it exceedingly.”