"Yes, sir," she said at length.
"When, and how?"
"It was many years ago, sir;--I do not like to speak of these things.
He is a terrible man, they say."
"You can speak to me, Amanda. I will repeat nothing; nor will Colonel
Surry."
The singular woman looked from Mohun to me, evidently hesitating. Then
she seemed suddenly to make up her mind, and said, with her eternal
smile:--
"I will tell you, then, sir. I can read faces, and I know neither you
nor Colonel Surry will get me into trouble."
"I will not--on my honor."
"Nor I," I said.
"That is enough, gentlemen; and now I will tell you what you wish to
know, General Mohun."
As she spoke she closed her eyes, and seemed for some moments to be
reflecting. Then opening them again, she gazed, with her calm smile, at
Mohun, and said:--
"It was many years ago, sir, when I first saw Colonel Darke, who then
went by another name. I was living in this same house, when late one
evening a light carriage stopped before the door, and a gentleman got
out of it, and came in. He said he was travelling with his wife, who
had been taken sick, and would I give them shelter until morning, when
she would be able to go on? I was a poor woman, sir, as I am now, and
hoped to be paid. I would have given the poor sick lady shelter all the
same, though--and I told him he could come in, and sleep in this room,
and I would go into that closet-like place behind you, sir.
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