"That," she said, pointing to the first cipher, "is my mother's
signature."
"Then," I said, "it is meant for you, not for me."
"Nay," she answered. "Do you think I could take advantage of your not
knowing the character?"--and she read words quite as incomprehensible
to me as the writing itself.
"Can a star mislead the blind? I should veil myself in crimson if I
have trained a bird to snatch sugar from full hands. Must even your
womanhood reverse the clasps of your childhood?"
"It chimes midnight twice," I said--a Martial phrase meaning, 'I am as
much in the dark as ever.' "Do not translate it, carissima. I can read
in your face that it is unjust--reproachful where you deserve no
reproach."
"Nay, when you so wrong my mother I must tell you exactly what she
means:--'Can a child of the Star take advantage of one who relies on
her to explain the customs of a world unknown to him? I blush to think
that my child can abuse the tenderness of one who is too eager to
indulge her fancies.'
"You see she is quite right. You do trust me so absolutely, you are so
strangely over-kind to me, it is shameful I should vex you by fretting
because you are forced to do what you might well have done at your own
pleasure.
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