“But you are English, are you not?”
“Yes.”
“And your father?”
“He is also English, and a slave. We have not met, nor have I heard of him, since we were parted on board ship many months ago. Listen!”
Chapter Five.
The Maiden’s Story—Peter the Great and the Middy go for a Holiday and see Awful Things.
During the conversation detailed in the last chapter the young English girl had spoken with her veil down. She now threw it carelessly back, and, sitting down on a bench opposite our midshipman, folded her hands in her lap and remained silent for a few seconds, during which George Foster said—not aloud, but very privately to himself, “Although your eyes are swelled and your little nose is red with crying, I never—no I never—did see such a dear, sweet, pretty little innocent face in all my life!”
All unconscious of his thoughts, and still giving vent now and then to an irresistible sob, the poor child—for she was little more—looked up and began her sad tale.