Page:Doctor Syn - A Smuggler Tale of the Romney Marsh.djvu/271

 "Yes, I love him," said the girl quietly.

"Ah!" sighed the lady, "that's all right, and I suppose I'm also not far out if I suppose that you would do a good deal to save him from being shipped off to the wars, eh?"

"I will do anything to save him from that danger," said the girl.

"Good!" replied the old lady. "Then come upstairs with me."

Out of the room and across the little hall they went, and so up the broad white staircase to the dearest little bedroom imaginable, with a small four-posted bed with chintz frills and hangings, and a dressing-table set with bright silver ornaments.

"Now this room is for you, my dear, for my handsome niece from India, you understand? And now I must ask you to change your clothes and get into some pretty frock or other, and I must have you to know, my dear, that I have been married twice, and by my first marriage I must tell you, my dear, that I had a daughter, a really beautiful daughter. This was years ago, of course, but she was just about your age as I remember her By the way, what is your age, my dear?"

"About sixteen, or I might be seventeen perhaps," said Imogene.

"Ah, well, my daughter was just nineteen when she died," went on the old lady. "She was all I had in the world, for her father had died when she was quite a