I stared at her.

"Can't you speak?" she cried, with a stamp of her foot. "At what
am I valued? Ten pounds - fifty pounds" -

"At one hundred and twenty pounds of tobacco, madam," I said
dryly. "I will pay it myself. To what name upon the ship's list do
you answer?"

"Patience Worth," she replied.

I left her standing there, and went upon my errand with a whirling
brain. Her enrollment in that company proclaimed her meanly
born, and she bore herself as of blood royal; of her own free will
she had crossed an ocean to meet this day, and she held in
passionate hatred this day and all that it contained; she was come
to Virginia to better her condition, and the purse which she had
drawn from her bosom was filled with gold pieces. To another I
would have advised caution, delay, application to the Governor,
inquiry; for myself I cared not to make inquiries.

The treasurer gave me my receipt, and I procured, from the crowd
around him, Humfrey Kent, a good man and true, and old Belfield,
the perfumer, for witnesses. With them at my heels I went back to
her, and, giving her my hand, was making for the nearest minister,
when a voice at a little distance hailed me, crying out, "This way,
Captain Percy!"

I turned toward the voice, and beheld the great figure of Master