thing was that she had no regrets.

Looking back on yesterday, the things that had happened seemed of little
interest. Sleep seemed to have put an Atlantic ocean between her and
them.

Coming down to breakfast she found Pinckney just coming in from the
garden; he said nothing about the incident of the night before, nor did
she, there were other things to talk about. Seth, one of the darkies, had
been 'kicking up shines,' he had given impudence to Miss Pinckney that
morning. Impudence to Miss Pinckney! You can scarcely conceive the meaning
of that statement without a personal knowledge of Miss Pinckney, and a
full understanding of the magic of her rule.

Seth was, even now, packing up the quaint contraptions he called his
luggage, and old Darius, the coloured odd job man, was getting a barrow
out of the tool-house to wheel the said luggage to Seth's grandmother's
house, somewhere in the negro quarters of the town. The whole affair of
the impudence and dismissal had not taken two minutes, but the effects
were widespread and lasting. Dinah was weeping, the kitchen in confusion;
one might have thought a death had occurred in the house, and Miss
Pinckney presiding at the breakfast table was voluble and silent by
turns.

"Never mind," said Pinckney with all the light-heartedness of a man
towards domestic affairs. "Seth's not the only nigger in Charleston."

"I'm not bothering about his going," replied Miss Pinckney. "He was all
thumbs and of no manner of use but to make work; what upsets me is the way
he hid his nature. Time and again I've been good to that boy. He looked
all black grin and frizzled head, nothing bad in him you'd say--and then!
It's like opening a cupboard and finding a toad, and there's Dinah going
on like a fool; she's crying because he's going, not because he gave me
impudence. Rachel's the same, and I'm just going now to the kitchen to
give them a talking to all round."

Off she went.

"I know what that means," said Pinckney. "It's only once in a couple of
years that there's any trouble with servants and then--oh, my! You see
Aunt Maria is not the same as other people because she loves every one
dearly, and looks on the servants as part of the family. I expect she
loves that black imp Seth, for all his faults, and that's what makes her
so upset."

"Same as I was about Rafferty," said Phyl with a little laugh.

Pinckney laughed also and their eyes met. Just like a veil swept aside,
something in