You will find a man who will take up a guitar and make it speak, while I--" "All that I understand," I broke in again.

"But her origin, her history--that is what I wish to hear." "And that, sir, is precisely what I am about to relate.

Poor child, she was left on my hands by her sainted mother--my daughter, sir--who perished young.

Now, her birthplace, where she was taught letters and the Catechism by the priest, was in an unhealthy situation.

It was hot and wet--always wet--a place suited to frogs rather than to human beings.