Dawson called on our two
gentlemen, Signor Sperano and Mr. Preston, and told them that they
had hitherto been amused or interested, but that it was now their
turn to amuse or interest. They looked at each other as if this
application of hers took them by surprise, and seemed altogether as
much abashed as well-grown men can ever be. Signor Sperano was the
first to recover himself: after thinking a little, he said -
"Your will, dear lady, is law. Next Monday evening, I will bring you
an old, old story, which I found among the papers of the good old
priest who first welcomed me to England. It was but a poor return
for his generous kindness; but I had the opportunity of nursing him
through the cholera, of which he died. He left me all that he had--
no money--but his scanty furniture, his book of prayers, his crucifix
and rosary, and his papers. How some of those papers came into his
hands I know not. They had evidently been written many years before
the venerable man was born; and I doubt whether he had ever examined
the bundles, which had come down to him from some old ancestor, or in
some strange bequest.
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