“There is the Spanish lady,” said I. “Will you take her ashore and find her a home in your house until she’s fetched? I’d sooner see her with you than at an inn. She has a tongue. Gratitude will keep her quiet, I hope, but she might talk.”
“If you’re afraid of her, aren’t ye afraid of the men?”
“No. The men haven’t any settled notions on the subject of the silver cargo. They want to get home, and up at Whitby they may talk if they please. The lad Jimmy will hold his jaw. I’ve promised to take him into my service. He’s a good lad.”
Without further speech my uncle got out of the lazarette, and after waiting to see me put the hatch on and secure it, he stepped up to the lady Aurora, and in his homely manner, that nevertheless borrowed a sort of grace from the warmth of his heart, he begged her to make use of his house until she heard from her friends. She thanked him, gazed at me with a short-lived look of confusion, and said:
“Until I hear from Mr. Maxwell, until I receive communications from Madrid, I am very poor. I wish not to part with these rings,” said she, looking down upon her hands; “I wish not to remove them; and my earrings,” continued she, with a shake of her head, “would not bring me nearly money enough to buy me what I want.”
“Leave that to me, ma’am,” said my uncle; “name your figure when we get ashore. There’s no luggage, I suppose?”
“Nothing that I care to take,” she answered. “Captain Round, I will ask you to land me in some secret place, as if I was contraband, and show me how to reach your house by the back ways. I do not love to be stared at, and many mocking eyes will rest upon me if I appear in this costume in your public streets.”
“You shan’t meet a soul,” answered my uncle, “if it isn’t a boatman too bleared with ale to observe more than that you’re a woman.”
She put on her hat and jacket, then stood a moment looking a slow farewell round her; her eyes met mine, and she turned a shade pale, as though to an emotion to which she could not or would not give expression.
“I’ll not say good-by, Señor Fielding,” said she, giving me her hand.