"I wonder if your name isn't Selwyn."
"Yes."
"Deary me, then I have seen your pa and ma long ago at Oaklands; that's
the Winthrop's place."
"Please tell me about them. I never saw them after I was ten years old. I
was sent from India, and then they died."
I spoke with a slight hesitancy, having first to translate my sentences,
as I still thought, in German.
"Well, I wan't much acquainted with 'em. Housemaids ain't in general on
friendly terms with the quality, but your ma was so kind to us servants,
I've always remembered her. Mrs. Winthrop sot a sight by her."
"What was that?" I asked, much mystified.
"Oh, she liked them better'n most."
"Do you recollect their appearance?"
"Yes; your father was a soldier-like, handsome looking man, very tall and
pretty stern. Your ma minded me of a flower, she was so delicate. They
wan't long married then, but my, they was fond of each other! Your father
just worshipped her. I heard Mrs. Winthrop say he had a hard time to get
her. Your ma's folks didn't want her to marry a soldier. She was an only
child, and they lived in England. The Winthrops were English, too, as
well as your father."
It was my turn now to fall into a reverie at the strangeness of
circumstances, thus causing me to meet this plain, old body, and learning
from her incidents about my own dead parents I might otherwise never have
known; besides she told it in such a realistic way that, in some
mysterious fashion, like mind reading, I seemed to see it all myself
through her clear eyes.
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