She Was A Woman About Five And Forty, With Regular
Features, Which Had Once Been Handsome, But Had Received
Considerable Injury From Time, And Perhaps More From Trouble.
Two
of her front teeth had disappeared, but she still had fine black
hair.
As I looked upon her countenance, I said within myself, if
there be truth in physiognomy, thou art good and gentle, O Joanna;
and, indeed, the kindness I experienced from her during the six
weeks which I spent beneath her roof would have made me a convert
to that science had I doubted in it before. I believe no warmer
and more affectionate heart ever beat in human bosom than in that
of Joanna Correa, the Mahonese widow, and it was indexed by
features beaming with benevolence and good nature, though somewhat
clouded with melancholy.
She informed me that she had been married to a Genoese, the master
of a felouk which passed between Gibraltar and Tangier, who had
been dead about four years, leaving her with a family of four
children, the eldest of which was a lad of thirteen; that she had
experienced great difficulty in providing for her family and
herself since the death of her husband, but that Providence had
raised her up a few excellent friends, especially the British
consul; that besides letting lodgings to such travellers as myself,
she made bread which was in high esteem with the Moors, and that
she was likewise in partnership in the sale of liquors with an old
Genoese.
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