"Take this tin cup," she said to the quadroon, "and go to the spring,
near here, and bring it to me full of water."

Then, as the girl tripped away, Vesta found a piece of paper, and wrote
her father a note, telling him to come to her; and to the girl, when she
returned, her mistress said:

"I want you to get a roll of new rag-carpet at Teackle Hall, and have it
brought here, to spread upon this floor. Send me, too, a pair of our
brass andirons, and pack in a basket some glass, table-ware, and linen.
Tell papa to bring one of his own night-shirts, and to take down my
picture in the sewing-room, and wrap it up, and have it sent. I must
have mamma's medicine-box and a wheelbarrow of ice; and let Hominy make
some strong tea and hot-water toast. Virgie, do not forget that this
sick gentleman is my husband, and a part of our own family!"

"The girl's face preserved its respect with difficulty as she heard the
last part of the sentence, but she replied to What she understood to be
a warning by saying:

"Miss Vessy, I never tell anybody tales."

"No, dear, you do not. I only feared you might forget the very different
view we must take of Mr. Milburn from his former life here."

Being again left alone, Vesta took the tin cup of spring-water, and,
raising the disturbed man's head, she gave him a drink, and, as he
opened his eyes to see whom it was, she heard him say, with an
articulate sigh:

"Heaven."

With the remainder of the water and her handkerchief she washed his hot
skin and kept it moist, and fitful murmurs, as "Darling!" "Angel!"
"Beautiful lady!" came from his roving brain as perception and poison
contended for his mind. The inborn sense in woman of happiness after
doing good offices and being appreciated was attended with a certain
intellectual elation, and even amusement, at having witnessed what was
altogether new to her,--the life of the meaner class of white people.
She looked at the dexterous silhouette of herself, cut, probably, from
memory, long ago, by the man, no doubt, who never knew her until
yesterday, and, guessing the companion profiles to be his mother and
father, she exclaimed, mentally:

"I cannot see anything insincere about this man's statement to me. Here
are all the proofs of his deep attachment to me long before he forced my
name upon papa with such apparent insolence. If papa could see these
proofs with a woman's interest, he would have a full apology in them.
Here, too, is the bi