to
anything he had expected to find, that for a moment he was bewildered.

The lady advanced into the light, calmly and proudly, and with a gleam
in her eyes, as if she enjoyed his astonishment. Her dress was of purple
silk, wrought with clusters of gold-tinted flowers, that scintillated
and gleamed as she moved out of the shadows; her raven hair, arranged
in heavy bandeaux on each side her face, was surmounted by a cashmere
scarf of pale green, which was carelessly knotted on one side of her
head, and fell in a mass of fringe and embroidery on her left shoulder.
The flowing waves of her robe swept the carpet as she moved, and the
undulations of her magnificent person, were like the movements of a
leopard in its native forest. There was neither fairness nor youth in
her person, and yet the large, oriental eyes, so velvety and black, had
a power of beauty in them, that any man must have acknowledged; and
there was a creamy softness of complexion, a peach-like bloom of the
cheek, dusky but glowing--that harmonized With the gorgeous richness of
her dress and surroundings. The woman stood before her visitor, her
proud figure stooping slightly forward, and her eyes downcast, waiting
for him to speak.

The General gazed on her a moment in silence, but a quiet smile of
recognition stole to his lips; and, with an air, half-patronizing,
half-pleased, he at last held out his hand.

"Zillah!"

The woman's hand trembled as she touched his; her head was uplifted for
an instant, and an exulting glance shot from those strange eyes, bright
as scintillations from a diamond.

"I was afraid you would not come," she said, gently.

"Why, Zillah?"

"Because men do not often like to meet those who remind them of broken
ties."

The General slightly waved his hand with a half dissenting gesture, and
a gratified expression stole over his countenance, answered by a sudden
gleam in that strange woman's eyes; for she read in that very look an
intimation that her former power was not wholly extinguished.

"How comes it that you are here, Zillah?" he asked, glancing around the
room. "This is a singular place to find you in."

"You are astonished to see me here? as if I were a slave yet. Was it
strange that I, a free woman, longed to leave the places which reminded
me of the past, to see and learn something of the world? But, there was
another and more important reason--had I not a child and a mother's
heart longing to behold her offspri