"Come in," added Agatha, in Latin, but by no means with so good an accent as her mother's. "You seem like your name; you seem to be Benigna."
The girl looked at the beautiful child with a sweet, grateful smile, and immediately proceeded to prepare a table and three covers for supper.
"Do you know Greek?"[60] asked Aglais.
"No, lady," replied the daughter of the house. "My father is quite a scholar; he was one of the secretary slaves in the great house before he got his freedom, and my mother has learnt much from him; but I have been brought up to help mother in the inn, and never had time to learn high things."
Agatha clapped her hands, and exclaimed,
"Then I'll talk my bad Latin to Benigna, and she shall make it good."
The girl paused in her operations at the table, and said,
"I thought Latin came naturally to one, like the rain, and that it was Greek which had to be worked out, and made, just as wine is."
The landlady, carrying various articles, entered as her daughter uttered this valuable observation, and she joined heartily in the laugh with which it was greeted. Benigna gazed round for a moment in amazement, and then resumed her work, laughing through sympathy, but very red from the forehead to the dimples round her pretty mouth.
The supper-table was soon ready.