"I bought her from William Pierce the other day.

Mistress Percy wished a waiting damsel." The creature, one of the five females of her kind then in Virginia, looked at us with large, rolling eyes.

She knew a little Spanish, and I spoke to her in that tongue, bidding her find her mistress and tell her that company waited.

When she was gone I placed a jack of ale upon the table, and Rolfe and I sat down to discuss it.

Had I been in a mood for laughter, I could have found reason in his puzzled face.