e was as like Rachel
at the well as her father had been to a patriarch, and her descent was
of the purest Saracen lineage, but a Christian Saracen was an anomaly
the London mind could not comprehend, and her presence in the family
tended to cast suspicion that Master Randall himself, with his gipsy
eyes, and mysterious comings and goings, must have some strange
connections. For this, however, Perronel cared little. She had made
her own way for many years past, and had won respect and affection by
many good offices to her neighbours, one of whom had taken her laundry
work in her absence.

Aldonza was by no means indocile or incapable. She shared in Perronel's
work without reluctance, making good use of her slender, dainty brown
fingers, whether in cooking, household work, washing, ironing, plaiting,
making or mending the stiff lawn collars and cuffs in which her
hostess's business lay. There was nothing that she would not do when
asked, or when she saw that it would save trouble to good mother
Perronel, of whom she was very fond, and she seemed serene and
contented, never wanting to go abroad; but she was very silent, and
Perronel declared herself never to have seen any living woman so
perfectly satisfied to do nothing. The good dame herself was
industrious, not only from thrift but from taste, and if not busy in her
vocation or in household business, was either using her distaff or her
needle, or chatting with her neighbours--often doing both at once; but
though Aldonza could spin, sew, and embroider admirably, and would do so
at the least request from her hostess, it was always a sort of task, and
she never seemed so happy as when seated on the floor, with her dark
eyes dreamily fixed on the narrow window, where hung her jackdaw's cage,
and the beads of her rosary passing through her fingers. At first
Mistress Randall thought she was praying, but by and by came to the
conviction that most of the time, "the wench was bemused." There was
nothing to complain of in one so perfectly gentle and obedient, and
withal, modest and devout; but the good woman, after having for some
time given her the benefit of the supposition that she was grieving for
her father, began to wonder at such want of activity and animation, and
to think that on the whole Jack was the more talkative companion.

Aldonza had certainly not taught him the phrases he was so fond of
repeating. Giles Headley had undertaken his education, and made it a