oor, the prisoner put out one hand
with a repellent gesture:

"I have surely suffered enough from General Darrington and his friends;
and I will see nobody connected with that fatal place, which has been a
curse to me."

"Just as you please; but old Auntie here, says she nursed your mother,
and on that account wants to see you."

Without waiting for permission, Dyce darted past the warden's wife,
into the room, and almost before Beryl was aware of her presence, stood
beside her.

"Are you Miss Ellie's daughter?"

Listlessly the girl turned and looked at her, and Dyce threw her arms
around her slender waist, and falling on her knees hid her face in
Beryl's dress, sobbing passionately. In the violence of her emotion,
she rocked back and forth, swaying like a reed in some fierce blast the
tall form, to whom she clung.

"Oh, my lovely! my lovely! To think you should be shut up here! To see
Miss Ellie's baby jailed, among the off-scourings of the earth! Oh, you
beautiful white deer! tracked and tore to pieces by wolves, and hounds,
and jackalls! Oh, honey! Just look straight at me, like you was facing
your accusers before the bar of God, and tell me you didn't kill your
grandpa. Tell me you never dipped your pretty hands in ole Marster's
blood."

Tears were streaming down Dyce's cheeks.

"If you knew my mother, how can you think it possible her child could
commit an awful crime?"

"Oh, God knows--I don't know what to think! 'Peers to me the world is
turned upside down. You see, honey, you are half and half; and while I
am perfectly shore of Miss Ellie's half of you, 'cause I can always
swear to our side, the Darrington in you, I can't testify about your
pa's side; he was a--a--"

"He was as much a gentleman, as my mother was a lady; and I would
rather be his daughter, than call a king my father."

"I believe you! There ain't no drop of scrub blood in you, as I can
see, and if you ain't thoroughbred, 'pearances are deceitful. I loved
your ma; I loved the very ground her little feet trod on. I fed her out
of my own plate many a time, 'cause she thought her Mammy's vittils was
sweeter than what Mistiss 'lowed her to have; and she have slept in my
bosom, and these arms have carried her, and hugged her, and--and--oh,
Lord God A'mighty! it most kills me to see you, her own little baby
here! In this awful, cussed den of thieves and villi-yans! Oh, honey!
for God's sake, just gin me some 'surance you are as pure as yo