'We got along, mother and I, as best we could, she hawking tapes and needles, and I—collecting pebbles.'
'There was really no necessity for that.'
'We must live. We had a cottage on the cliffs, but it went to pieces as the cliff cracked and made a chasm. So we were obliged to leave it, and then we had a very bad time, for no one would take us in.'
'You should have gone into lodgings. Your mother had means.'
'Hardly any. One may earn a few pence by the sale of combs and laces, thread and needles, but not much. And I was indeed proud if I got ninepence for a cornelian.'
'I do not understand. Why did you go to that man—that captain—I do not recall his name?'
'Oh, you mean Captain Rattenbury. He took us in one night when we were in despair, wet to the bone, and had no shelter for our heads, and every door was shut against us.'
'But if you had asked Olver Dench, he would have provided for you.'
'He! he is our worst enemy.'
'That cannot be.'