In a moment in came Molly and
said that a man wanted to see me on very particular business. She
said the man spoke English. That was the reason I consented to see
him, my dear; for I must say that, present company excepted, I do
hate foreigners. However, I said I would see the man, and Molly showed
him in, a seedy-looking fellow he was, with a great cut over his eye.
I knew at a glance he was not English-born and I wished I had refused
to see him; he had, however, a plausible tongue, and was quite quiet
and *well-behaved.
"How astonished I was when he asked for your purse of gold, Cecile,
and showed me the little bit of paper, in my own writing, promising
to resign the purse at any time to bearer.
"I was puzzled, I can tell you. I thoroughly distrusted the man, but
I scarcely knew how to get out of my own promise. He had his tale,
too, all ready enough. You had found the girl you were looking for:
she was in great poverty, and very ill; you were also ill, and could
not come to fetch the purse; you therefore had sent him, and he must
go back to the south of France without delay to you. He said he had
been kept on the road by an accident which had caused that cut over
his eye.
"I don't know that I should have given him the purse,--I don't
believe I should,--but, at any rate, before I had made up my mind to
any line of action, again Molly put in an appearance, saying that a
ragged boy seemed in great distress outside, and wanted to see me
immediately; 'and he too can speak English,' she continued with a
smile.
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