, played as I direct, the odds are in our
favour. Picked up at sea from an Algerine boat, who shall deny our story
when the evidence against us lies there" (laying his hand out towards
the south), "where no man in England dare venture to seek it?"

"Why, to be sure," says Dawson; "that way all hangs together to a
nicety. For only a wizard could dream of coming hither for our undoing."

"For the rest," continues the Don, thoughtfully, "there is little to
fear. Judith Godwin has eyes the colour of Moll's, and in all else Simon
must expect to find a change since he last saw his master's daughter.
They were in Italy three years. That would make Judith a lisping child
when she left England. He must look to find her altered. Why," adds he,
in a more gentle voice, as if moved by some inner feeling of affection
and admiration, nodding towards Moll, "see how she has changed in this
little while. I should not know her for the raw, half-starved spindle of
a thing she was when I saw her first playing in the barn at Tottenham
Cross."

Looking at her now (browsing the goats amongst my most cherished herbs),
I was struck also by this fact, which, living with her day by day, had
slipped my observation somewhat. She was no longer a gaunt, ungainly
child, but a young woman, well proportioned, with a rounded cheek and
chin, brown tinted by the sun, and, to my mind, more beautiful than any
of their vaunted Moorish women. But, indeed, in this country all things
do mature quickly; and 'twas less surprising in her case because her
growth had been checked before by privation and hardship, whereas since
our coming hither it had been aided by easy circumstances and good
living.

CHAPTER XIV.

_Of our coming to London (with incidents by the way), and of the great
address whereby Moll confounds Simon, the steward._

On the third day of July, all things falling in pat with the Don's
design, we bade farewell to Elche, Dawson and I with no sort of regret,
but Moll in tears at parting from those friends she had grown to love
very heartily. And these friends would each have her take away something
for a keepsake, such as rings to wear on her arms and on her ankles (as
is the Moorish fashion), silk shawls, etc., so that she had quite a
large present of finery to carry away; but we had nothing whatever but
the clothes we stood in, and they of the scantiest, being simply long
shirts and "bernouses" such as common Moors wear. For the wise D