"
"And they were--?"
"An old woman, called Andrinetta--I know that, though I called her
'nurse' when she was with me in the beautiful home I so dimly
remember--and the man whom you have heard of under the name of Black
Milsom."
"Is he an Italian?" asked Andrew, astonished.
"I don't know," replied Honoria. "In England he calls himself an
Englishman--in Italy he is supposed to be an Italian. What his real
calling was in those days I do not know; but I feel assured that it
must been dark and unlawful as all his actions have been since that
time. He pretended to get his living like the other fishermen in the
neighbourhood; but he was often idle for a week at a time, and still
more often, absent. I have seen him count over gold and jewels with old
Andrinetta on his return from some expedition. To me he was harsh and
cruel. I hated him, and he knew that I hated him. He ordered me to call
him father, and I was more than once savagely beaten by him because I
refused to do so. Under such treatment, in such a wretched home,
deprived of all natural companionship, I grew wild and strange. My will
was indomitable as the will of my tyrant; and on many occasions I
resisted him boldly. Sometimes I ran away, and wandered for days
together among the neighbouring hills and woods; but I returned always
sooner or later to my miserable shelter, for I knew not where else to
go.
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