Ata is a
sensible girl, and she doesn't expect any ceremony before the
Mayor. She's a Protestant, and you know they don't look upon
these things like the Catholics.'
"Then he said: `But what does Ata say to it?' `It appears
that she has a
for you,' I said. `She's willing if
you are. Shall I call her?' He chuckled in a funny, dry way
he had, and I called her. She knew what I was talking about,
the hussy, and I saw her out of the corner of my eyes
listening with all her ears, while she pretended to iron a
blouse that she had been washing for me. She came. She was
laughing, but I could see that she was a little shy,
and Strickland looked at her without speaking."
"Was she pretty?" I asked.
"Not bad. But you must have seen pictures of her. He painted
her over and over again, sometimes with a on and
sometimes with nothing at all. Yes, she was pretty enough.
And she knew how to cook. I taught her myself. I saw
Strickland was thinking of it, so I said to him: 'I've given
her good wages and she's saved them, and the captains and the
first mates she's known have given her a little something now
and then.
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